§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the statement made by the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Beverley Hughes) in Standing Committee on 27 January 2004,Official Report, columns 446–47, how many failed asylum seekers have left the UK in each year since 1999; what the evidential basis was for the Minister's assertion that Migration Watch UK's assumptions are spurious; what steps are being taken to ensure recent increases in work permit numbers are short-term; what proportion of the estimated population increase between (a) 2001 to 2026, (b) 2003 to 2026 and (c) 2002 to 2031 is attributable to net immigration; and to what less than 0.3 per cent. refers. [156086]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 25 February 2004]The following table contains the number of asylum seekers who have been removed from the UK in each year since 1999, including those departing voluntarily after enforcement action had been initiated against them and persons departing under the Assisted Voluntary Return Programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration. The figures do not include those who have departed voluntarily under their own means without informing the Government.
602W
Asylum removals 1999 to 20031 Principal applicants Dependants Total 1999 7,655 n/a n/a 2000 8,980 n/a n/a 20012 9,285 1,495 10,780 20023 10,740 3,170 13,910 20033 12,490 4,550 17,040 n/a = Data on dependants removed have only been collected since April 2001. 1 Includes persons departing voluntarily after enforcement action had been initiated against them and persons departing under the Assisted Voluntary Return Programmes run by the IOM. 2 Data on dependants are for April to December only. 3 Provisional data. Note: Data are rounded to nearest five and may not sum due to rounding. The population projections produced by the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) are part of National Statistics and are covered by the National Statistics Code of Practice. This means that they are completely independent and produced to the highest professional principals and standards. We believe that this, along with access to the most relevant and up to date information captured by the Home Office's statistical branch and the Office for National Statistics, makes GAD's assumptions more credible than those of groups such as Migration Watch UK. I have written to Sir Andrew Green of Migration Watch UK setting out why the assumptions produced by his group are incorrect.
Work permits are issued in respect of posts which UK-based employers are unable to fill with suitably qualified resident workers and, except in the case of the Sectors Based Scheme for low skilled workers, are not subject to any numerical ceiling on the number of permits issued. Work Permits (UK), which administers these arrangements, seeks to ensure that the criteria for the issuing of work permits are responsive to changes in labour market conditions. The work permit arrangements are demand-led and the overall number of work permit applications in either the short or long-term will be dictated by the extent to which UK-based employers are able to fill vacancies with suitably qualified workers.
In his latest (2002-based) projections for the UK, the Government Actuary projects that (a) between 2001 and 2026 total population growth will be 5.1 million, of which total net inward migration is assumed to be 3.3 million; (b) between 2003 and 2026 total population growth will be 4.8 million, of which total net inward migration is assumed to be 3.0 million and; (c) between 2002 and 2031 total population growth will be 5.6 million, of which total net inward migration is assumed to be 3.8 million.
My reference to "less than 0.3 per cent." (Standing Committee, Official Report, column 447) should have been to the average population increase per annum. I am happy to take this opportunity to clarify this point for the record.