the 1951 or 1954 Convention. In all other cases, their claim to be Stateless should only be recorded in ‘Person notes’. Should the applicant be considered to be Stateless following consideration of the claim, officers should amend CID to reflect this.”56 However, in examining CID records as part of the qualitative research, no consistent pattern emerged in the way that CID was used. Indeed one response to a Freedom of Information Act request detailed that caseworkers used these categories based on the client’s selfidentification of being stateless and confirmed that “[t]here is no guidance on when each of the different stateless categories can or should be used”.57 Similar issues were identified from a series of semi-structured interviews undertaken with UK Border Agency staff. The result is that any of the statistics derived from CID management information relating to stateless persons have to be treated with caution. Relevant “nationality” groupings in the published statistics The Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2009 was published by the Home Office in August 2010, immediately before the data collection for this research began. It contained no distinct “nationality” grouping of “stateless”. Rather, upon investigation,59 it became clear that there was an existing category for “stateless” persons recorded as a subset of the published “other and not known” category.60 While the data collection for this project was coming to an end, however, the Home Office published Immigration Statistics: April to June 2011, which contained in their supporting tables for the first time a nationality grouping of “stateless”, as well as a separate “unknown or other” nationality grouping.61 The precise composition of these categories is not set out in the publication, but from further discussions with the Migration Statistics team at the Home Office it has become clear that these included a wide combination of different categories, whose use fluctuates dependent on the variable being studied. Consequently, although the publication of a “stateless” nationality grouping within the statistics is an excellent step forward, more needs to be done to ensure that the grouping reflects the numbers of stateless persons coming into contact with immigration control accurately. The “stateless” and “unknown or other” nationality groupings identified are partly made up of data from databases that are used by the UK Border Agency. The first database is CID detailed above. The second is the Central Record System, a web-based application that contains entry clearance data from diplomatic missions from overseas. Individual records on these systems include an attribution of a nationality category from a specified drop-down list. 56 UK Border Agency, Asylum Process Guidance: Nationality Doubtful, Disputed or Other Cases, paragraph 7.1, available at: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/ documents/policyandlaw/asylumprocessguidance/specialcases/guidance/natinality-doubtfuldisputed?view=Binary. 57 Detail provided in FOI request 18427 received 18th May 2011 in response to a question from the researchers about how the various existing “stateless” relevant categories are selected for use by case owners when entering information on CID. 58 For an analysis, see Chapter 4. 59 During discussions with the Home Office, Migration Statistics Team. 60 On some occasions, the category “other and not known” includes “British Overseas Citizens” as an additional subset. This group has been separately disaggregated by UKBA and as it is not relevant here will be excluded from this analysis. 61 See Home Office Immigration Statistics: April to June 2011, available at: http://www.homeoffice. gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/immigration-asylum-research/ immigration-q2-2011/. in the United Kingdom 31