Minutes of the Migration Reporting Working Group

You asked

Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide me with full minutes of each meeting of the Migration Statistics Working Group since 2015.

We said

Thank you for your FoI request on 11 February asking for the full minutes of each meeting of the Migration Statistics Working Group since 2015.

The Migration Reporting Working Group consists of analysts from across government responsible for producing migration statistics.

Its aim is to improve migration reporting across government by achieving greater coherence and improved commentary and analysis of migration statistics. This will be achieved by continuing to:

• Publish migration statistics on agreed dates of migration outputs across government;
• Monitor commentary and analysis accompanying the outputs and ensure that this responds to user needs and changing migration patterns;
• Promote close-working between those producing migration statistics.

The minutes of meetings since 2015 are attached.

Some explanatory notes (in red) have been included within the minutes to highlight additional context where required.

All personal information has been withheld from disclosure under s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

A small amount of information has been withheld under s.36(b)(i) and (ii) which relates to information which would or would likely, inhibit the free and frank provision of advice, or the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. The ability of the Migration Reporting Working Group to discharge its responsibilities effectively relies upon the free and frank provision of advice across government. It is our view that releasing certain information may limit future discussion and the willingness of stakeholders to provide full and frank information in the future.

To apply this exemption we are required to consider the public interest; whilst we note there are public interest arguments in favour of transparency and disclosure we have concluded that these are outweighed by the need to ensure a "safe space" for current and future discussions with government departments and other stakeholders.

As we have applied one of the s.36 exemptions, its use has been agreed by the National Statistician in his role as the “qualified person”.