Population Increase: Migration
Debate between Lord Blunkett and Lord Bates(8 years, 10 months ago)
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Lord Bates
Yes, that is our policy, which we repeated in the manifesto at the 2015 election.
Lord Blunkett (Lab)
Does the Minister agree that that vague objective might be at least rational, and our presentation to the public would be more rational, if we took full-time and postgraduate students out of the so-called target?
Lord Bates
In essence, it does not make any difference. The target is based on the international way in which the ONS calculates the data. There is absolutely no limit on the number of bona fide students coming to study at bona fide universities in the UK. Where there remains a problem is with people who overstay on those student visas. Last year, 123,000 people came in, but we counted out only 36,000. That leaves a gap of around 90,000 which we need to understand better. Exit controls will help that, but we do not think that changing the way we calculate the figures will necessarily make any difference to finding the correct answer.