Labour government launches legal bid to block publication of migrant crime statistics
Labour looks to block the single-biggest release of migrant crime data in British history. Help us fight back.
The Labour government is heading to court to block the publication of migrant crime statistics.
Following a year-long battle at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), it was ruled that the Ministry of Justice must provide the Centre for Migration Control with the most comprehensive dataset on migrant crime in British history.
The Labour government is now trying to stop the public learning the truth.
The Daily Telegraph has run this story: “David Lammy fighting to ‘cover up’ foreigners’ crimes”.
The Centre for Migration Control today announces a campaign to fight back against this cover-up. The public deserve to know the truth, the country requires that this information be published.
Help the Centre for Migration Control fight back against the Labour government by supporting our Crowdfunder:
Background
For the last year the Centre for Migration Control (CMC) has been locked in a battle at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - a non-department government body tasked with upholding public access to government data - with the Ministry of Justice.
In June 2025 the CMC requested via the FOI Act 2000 that the Ministry of Justice produce statistics on the total number of convictions between 2018 and 2024 ( broken down by nationality) for detailed offences within the following headline offence categories: “violence against the person”, “sexual offences”, “drug offences”, “criminal damage and arson”, “possession of weapons”, “theft offences”, and “robbery”.
This information would have been the single biggest release of migrant crime statistics in British history and, for the first time, told us how many migrants are convicted every year of murder, rape, arson, the importation and supply of class A drugs, the sale of weapons, along with hundreds of other offences.
Unlike other European nations - including Denmark, Germany, and Sweden - the British government does not publish this information. This is despite the information being readily available on the Police National Computer.
The Ministry of Justice refused this FOI request and, on 10th July 2025, the CMC requested that the ICO make a ruling on whether it was appropriate for the data to be withheld.
On 22nd June 2026, over 12 months after the initial FOI request, the ICO ruled unambiguously that the Ministry of Justice must “disclose the requested information” to the CMC.
The ICO found that the MOJ had not provided any evidence which justified that the data be withheld.
The MOJ claimed that providing this information would breach Section 40 (2) of the FOI Act, which is designed to stop the identification of individuals.
However, in a blow to the government, the ICO found that the “MoJ has not demonstrated how a motivated intruder would move from general reporting of offences to the precise matching of individuals to aggregated statistical cells”.
The MOJ then attempted to claim that producing this data would exceed the cost limits set out by the FOI Act (Section 12) and that, as such, they were not required to produce the information. Again, the ICO found that this claim was unfounded and that “the MoJ has failed to demonstrate that section 12(1) is engaged”.
You can read the full ruling below.
The ICO’s ruling left no doubt: there was no justifiable reason for the MOJ to not produce this information.
However, rather than accept this ruling, on 17th July, the Labour government launched an appeal at the First-tier Tribunal hoping to overturn this ruling and to prevent the publication of the data.
The government has requested a 28-day extension for it to produce a case against the ICO’s ruling. At this point, the decision will then go to the General Regulatory Council.
Firstly, this clearly negates alleged concerns about cost - given they will now be spending taxpayers’ money fighting the release of the data .
But, more importantly, this raises serious questions about what is being hidden.
We already know that at a migrant is arrested in England and Wales every 3 minutes, that over 40% of those charged with sex crimes in London are foreign nationals, and that at four in ten arrests on Britain’s railway network are foreigners (including 80% of thefts).
What is contained within this data that is so abhorrent the British state has felt it has no choice but to conduct a legal attack on transparency?
It is worth noting, that as part of its engagement with the ICO, some of the information on convictions for the years 2018-2024 has now already been compiled. It is ready to be published. The only reason they are blocking its publication is because they want to keep the public in the dark.
A further point of note is that, as of 19th July 2026, the Ministry of Justice has failed to comply with a similar FOI act requesting conviction data by nationality for 2025.
The publication of this data is essential. If we wish to ensure that the government commits to a proper deportation programme of foreign criminals then we need to know how many have been convicted. If we want to see visa bans on nationalities that disproportionately commit crime in this country, then we need this data. If we want the Home Office to detain Channel migrants, rather than let them roam around our communities, then we need to hold them to account with this data.
Britain will only adopt a sensible migration policy when the public has access to this information.
Be in no doubt, the Centre for Migration Control intends to fight the Labour government at every turn, and deploy every available mechanism to ensure that the public has full access to this data.
If you wish to support our campaign, please do via the link below:
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Amazing that the state still thinks it can control the narrative (through information suppression in this case.) That ship sailed some time ago.
Wonder why?