Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-03-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to record the departure of non-EU students as they leave the UK at the end of their studies.

James Brokenshire

The Office for National Statistics long-term international migration data
include estimates of the numbers of students leaving the UK. At the request of
the Home Office and other migration statistics users, the ONS has improved its
methodology with an aim to identify emigrants who had originally arrived as
students. This has assisted in assessing the contribution of students to
overall net migration. It is estimated that 49,000 non-EU migrants, who had
previously immigrated for study, had emigrated from the UK in the year ending
September 2013.

HM Government has made a commitment to reintroduce exit checks. By 2015, we
will have checks in place on those who leave the UK by scheduled international
air, sea and rail services. Introducing exit checks will improve our ability to
confirm departure and to identify those who have failed to leave the UK when
they should have done so.