'eBorders' project will still supplement migration data

"The Government must plan to end reliance on the International Passenger Survey as the primary method of estimating migration: it is not fit for the purposes to which it is put...

"... The ONS and Home Office should move as quickly as possible to measuring immigration, emigration and net migration using e-Borders data"

Those were the words of the Public Administration Select Committee last year. This week the Mail and the Telegraph reported that the government's 'eBorders' project would not in fact be able to improve migration figures.

The reason suggested by the Mail was that EU rules had "banned" border guards from asking EU nationals how long they intend to stay in the UK - which the Home Office confirmed had played a role.

But the Home Office didn't say the programme would be useless for helping to count people coming to stay in the UK. They emphasised that the data could still be used to "enhance" the current estimates:

"the strategy... has been to use Border Systems Programme [which incorporates e-Borders] data an additional source of information that can improve the estimation of net migration".

The Home Office also made clear that officials can question EU passengers where they suspected the passenger was travelling under a fake identity or nationality, for example.

The idea that the e-Borders data would not be able to fully replace the IPS is not new either - the UK Statistics Authority said as much in their evidence to the Committee.

The news comes from the government's response to the recommendations, published this week. Estimates of net migration based on the IPS were underestimated in every year from 2001 to 2010.