Home Office ‘burying bad news’ with plan to scrap daily Channel migrants data

The Home Office is preparing to ditch the publication of daily figures showing the number of migrants crossing the Channel – prompting accusations that ministers are trying to bury bad news.

The department is set to publish the figures only every three months after the official statistics watchdog said data on migrant crossings needed to be more thoroughly checked before publication.

The move has been revealed to The Telegraph by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), but it said the decision to publish quarterly had been taken by the Home Office.

“We have urged the department to take account of user need for a more frequent publication,” it said.

The move comes after The Telegraph disclosed that Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has been warned that as many as 65,000 migrants could cross the Channel this year in the “worst case scenario”.

This January’s total has already hit more than 940 after 168 people reached the UK in six boats on Tuesday – more than four times the number in the same month last year. At least another 25 reached the UK on Wednesday.

The Home Office said it was considering the advice from the OSR and would publish its plans “in due course”, but would continue to publish daily data “in the immediate term”.

Tory MPs warned that any attempt to ditch daily figures would be a mistake. One said: “It just looks like covering up, and no doubt journalists will come up with their own figures based on people arriving at Tughaven [the migrant processing centre in Dover] and Freedom of Information requests.”

Natalie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover, said: “This is not a statistical exercise – this is a serious crisis where people are exploited by criminal gangs on a daily basis and lives are tragically lost. Daily figures are vital so the progress in tackling this crisis can be properly monitored.”

A third MP said: “It seems more like burying bad news than being transparent about crossings.”

'Pushing a boulder uphill'

The OSR wrote to the Home Office last year to say the daily data did not meet its expectations and transparency standards for government statistics, which needed to be “accessible with appropriate explanations of context and sources”.

But an OSR spokesman said: “The decision to release this on a quarterly basis, rather than more frequently, is a decision that has been made by the department.”

The spokesman said the organisation understood the department’s view that quarterly publication would ensure the statistics were “put into the longer term and wider immigration and asylum context and so better support the public debate and understanding”.

“We have urged the department to take account of user need for a more frequent publication, which would include information on the strengths and limitations of these statistics and how this impacts use,” the spokesman added.

A senior source said: “The Home Office just feels like they’re pushing a boulder uphill in terms of people phoning up demanding to know how many have arrived in a day. Are some of the more political types saying it [daily data] is a rod for our backs? Yes. They would like it to go away.”

Earlier this week, the Government announced that the military is to be put in charge of stemming the surge in migrants crossing the Channel, although precise details of its role have yet to be revealed.

James Heappey, the defence minister, said the Navy was more likely to play a command and control role rather than “interception and interdiction” of people in small boats. Tory MPs have, however, warned that the Navy will become a “taxi service” for migrants.