Lords urge Scandinavian-style migration system for the UK
Key Points
- Lords committee urges a Scandinavian-style migration data system
- Visa records would be linked to HMRC payroll and DWP Universal Credit data
- Each visa grant would get a consistent individual identifier
- Calls for two-way data sharing across Home Office and other agencies
- Disappointed ONS halted its move to linked data over costs
- Rejects an interim census as too costly and slow
A House of Lords committee has called on the government to adopt a Scandinavian-style migration data system, with visa records routinely linked to tax and benefits data to track how migrants interact with public services.
In its report published on 23 June, the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee said the Government should seek to emulate a Scandinavian-style data collection system in which visa records are routinely linked to other administrative data, including HMRC payroll records and Department for Work and Pensions Universal Credit claimant data.
To support those links, the committee recommended that each grant of a visa be assigned an internal, consistent individual identifier, similar to the identifier proposed in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.
The identifier would be included in records whenever a person interacted with public services, the tax system and the criminal justice system, with all departments routinely capturing and reporting the data.
The committee said old data systems without a consistent individual identifier, combined with gaps in data collection when migrants use public services, prevented a comprehensive understanding of migrants’ experiences.
The absence of linked data and limited data sharing across government, it added, prevented the timely identification of future demand for services and reduced the effectiveness of planning and delivery.
It recommended that the Home Office improve or introduce two-way data sharing between the department, enforcement agencies, sector regulators and other parts of government, to aid compliance, support future policy and assist with impact assessments.
The committee said it was disappointed to learn that the Office for National Statistics had halted its move towards a linked data system, citing costs and a focus on short-term outcomes.
It called on the ONS to resume that work so that migrants’ outcomes in areas such as employment, benefits, housing, health and justice could be analysed more systematically.
The committee did not recommend conducting an interim census, which it said would be costly and unlikely to be completed within a year.
Instead, it concluded that the systematic linkage of Home Office visa data with other administrative datasets was a more effective long-term solution to the gaps that emerge between census years, and said it should be implemented as a priority.
