EU citizens and immigration

You asked

Could you please provide me with the following:

1. Absolute number of EU citizens in the UK broken down into EU 15, EU 8 and EU 2 for the following quarters :

   Dec 2016
   March 2017
   September 2017

   If breakdown of EU origin is not available I will be happy to have absolute number only.

2. Breakdown of EU citizen immigration and emigration for the quarter July - September 2017 only (quarterly view).

3. Number of EU students immigrating in Qtrs July - September 2017 and July - September 2016.

We said

Thank you for your request.

The information you have requested in question one can be obtained from the customer services team of our Social Survey Division. This team provides an ad-hoc analysis service, including - of relevance in this instance - tabulations of Labour force (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) data, both of which contain question variables relating to EU citizens. This service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate. Details of the religion variables included in these datasets can be viewed in the LFS User Guides;

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyuserguidance

If you would like to enquire about our service then please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk

Because this information is available through that route, we consider that Freedom of Information Act s.21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the Freedom of Information Act. S.21(1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest needs to be applied.

If you are able to do your own cross-tabulations you could purchase an anonymised LFS or APS dataset from the UK Data Service. Details on costs and how to download the data can be found on their website:

Advice for commercial users;

http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/registration.aspx#/tab-commercial-users

Charges - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/charges.aspx

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide you with information needed to answer your second and third question as this is intended for future publication. S.22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act applies whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. This exemption is subject to a public interest test. Whilst we recognise the desirability of information being freely available, we also acknowledge that public authorities must have the freedom to be able to determine their own publication timetables. This allows them to deal with the necessary preparation, administration, and context of publication. Furthermore, public interest is best served through the public having confidence that the information published by ONS is accurate and final. Release on an ad-hoc basis would not achieve this aim and will cause unnecessary confusion if they were to be misrepresented. In this case, exempting the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure.