THE bid to stregthen the UK's creaking system to measuring migration needs stronger management, says the Statistics Authority in a new report. Migration statistics have been widely criticised for failing to provide an adequate picture of immigration into the UK, and movements of people within the country.

An interdepartmental progamme, the Migration Statistics Improvement Programme, is working on ways of improving the data. But it needs stronger management, and the authority calls on the departments concerned - ONS, Communities and Local Government, and the Home Office - to work on the problem "urgently" and report back by the summer. 

The full report is at

http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports---correspondence/reports/migration-statistics--interim-report.pdf