by Tali Fraser, Conservative Home
Please excuse me, for I am about to entirely steal a phrase from Conservative MP and former health minister Neil O’Brien: there is a “data desert” when it comes to government and immigration.
Statistics from DWP and HMRC on welfare claims by nationality and the amount of tax paid by nationality (including data on tax credit and child benefit claims), once regularly reported, have been going unpublished – and without real explanation.
This is not exactly a new phenomenon. In fact, it began under Tory government and it was never clear which, if any, ministers signed off on such changes.
But it speaks to a serious, ongoing issue when it comes to understanding immigration in this country: the British state does not even try to calculate the net fiscal costs and benefits of different profiles of migrant.
Some individuals like Nick Timothy, along with O’Brien, have been regularly pushing for this to change over the past few years.
One Tory MP says the data releases need to encompass “everything which measures net benefit” including crime statistics, non-payment of student loans and council house occupation.
Read also: Can Keir Starmer be trusted to control migration? by Karl Williams, CapX