Govt apologises for foreign worker miscount
Hain sorry after 300,000 revision
Tuesday, 30, Oct 2007 12:00
The government has apologised after it emerged the number of immigrants working in the UK is 300,000 more than first thought.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) now states 1.1 million foreign nationals have been employed in the UK since 1997, not the 800,000 figure previously stated by ministers.
Work and pensions secretary Peter Hain insisted the original figure was used "in good faith".
Apologising for the error, employment minister Caroline Flint said some groups - including foreign nationals married to Britons and those not employed before 1997 – were left off by mistake.
Mr Hain has written to his Conservative counterpart Chris Grayling to explain the error.
He wrote: "It was stated that the increase in the number of foreign nationals in employment since 1997 was 0.8 million.
"Following careful analysis of the information in the Labour Force Survey, this figure has been revised upwards by 0.3 million.
"This revised analysis shows that there are, in total, an extra 1.1 million foreign nationals in employment in the UK since 1997.
"I apologise for having to make this revision," he added.
Mr Grayling said the incident called into question the competence of ministers and the entire government.
He argued it was "profoundly wrong" for the government not to know the correct figures when making policy.
Shadow immigration minister Damien Green insisted the government's figures on immigration "are all over the place."
Mr Green added: "They cannot get to the root of the population crisis, however, because they simply don't know who is entering the country, where they come from and who is leaving."
The Liberal Democrats said the revision undermined the government's credibility on immigration.
Lib Dem work and pensions spokesman Danny Alexander said: "Getting these figures so wrong further undermines the credibility of the government's claims to be able to deliver a well-managed system for foreign workers."
Mr Alexander added that Britain has benefited from foreign labour, but the government must ensure the public can have confidence in the system.
The mistake arose as the Conservatives reopened the immigration debate with a pledge to cap immigration.