The Office for National Statistics has today published a progress report on the cross-government programme of work to enhance and extend the official migration statistics.  

  The Digital Economy Act 2017 allows ONS access to data held by other departments that afford deeper insight into trends in migration and its impact on communities as well as the dependency of different sectors of the economy on migrant workers. These include Home Office exit check and student visa data sets.

  This programme of work will by March 2020 put administrative data at the core of migration statistics and reduce dependency on the International Passenger Survey, the limitations of which have been clear for some time.    

  On 16 July 2018 ONS will present the best estimates of trends in migration using all sources of available information including administrative data and the International Passenger Survey, together with the latest Migration Statistics Quarterly report postponed from today.

  The update report can be read here: 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/articles/migrationstatisticstransformationupdate/2018-05-24