Flaws in migration numbers to be addressed by ONS

After a controversy involving the glaring discrepancy between how the Office for National Statistics (ONS) counts long-term migrants to the country, and the bafflingly much higher number of migrants registering to work in the country – a row which the FT Data blog has reported on here – the ONS has announced a review of how migrants are counted.

Addressing the concerns, first flagged by economist Jonathan Portes, the ONS admits it has decided to undertake a “reconciliation” of the four main sources of migration data: the International Passenger Survey, the Labour Force Survey, the Department for Work and Pensions’ data on national insurance numbers and figures on visas.