Nicholas Soames: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK have not become British citizens. [170041]

Mr Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Glen Watson, dated October 2013:

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to respond to your Parliamentary Question to ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK have not become British citizens [170041].

The Office for National Statistics collects data on residents of the UK from the Annual Population Survey (APS), which is the Labour Force Survey (LFS) plus various sample boosts. It is a household survey and so does not include people living in most types of communal establishment.

The latest estimates that are available are derived from the APS for the 12 month period of January to December 2012. The estimated number of Commonwealth citizens resident in the UK (and hence the number that have not become British citizens) is 1,336,000 with a corresponding margin of error of +/- 50,000.

The margin of error refers to the 95 per cent confidence interval and is a measure of the uncertainty associated with making inferences from a sample.

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