To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office

(1) how levels of immigration from Commonwealth categories have changed in each of the last five years;

(2) how many seasonal workers have entered the UK from (a) inside and (b) outside the EU for work over the Christmas period in each of the last five years.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Glen Watson, dated December 2012

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to respond to your recent Parliamentary Questions 1) how levels of immigration from Commonwealth categories have changed in each of the last five years. (131987), and 2) how many seasonal workers have entered the UK from (a) inside and (b) outside the EU for work over the Christmas period in each of the last five years. (131990)

The Office for National Statistics {ONS) produces estimates of long-term international migration (LTIM). ONS uses the UN definition of a long-term migrant in that a person who changes their country of usual residence for a period of 12 months or more. LTIM data is primarily based on the International Passenger Survey (IPS).

Long Term International Migration (LTIM) estimates are available on the ONS website:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-280889

Table 1 provides a summary of immigration from the Commonwealth countries in each of the last five years. This has been taken from Table 2.02 "LTIM Country of Last or Next Residence, 1991-2011", which provides estimates of immigration by country groupings.

ONS does not collect any information specifically on seasonal workers entering the UK for work over the Christmas period.

Table 2.02, Series MN