International Passenger Survey

You asked

I am writing to request answers to the following questions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The questions are in relation to the International Passenger Survey (IPS):

1. How many international students studying in the UK on a Tier 4 visa were interviewed by the IPS during the period 1st January 2015 - 1st October 2015?

2. Between what hours (e.g. 9am – 5pm) does the IPS conduct its exit interviews between every day?

3. At which exit points (e.g. major airports and sea routes) were exit interviews conducted during the period 1st January 2015 – 1st October 2015? Please could you be as specific as possible in identifying the exit points.

4. How many exit interviews were conducted at each of these exit points during the same time period?

We said

The IPS does not collect information about the visa that international passengers may be travelling on and therefore we are unable to provide a response to the request in point 1.

The attached document (IPS Exit Locations and Times) provides details of the possible shift times and locations that the IPS exit interviews were carried out between 1st January 2015 and 1st October 2015. The actual shifts depend upon the sample that is drawn. Details of the IPS sampling methodology is available within the IPS Overseas Travel and Tourism User Guide (Volume 1): Background and Methodology.

The attached document (Exit Interviews by Port) provides the number of completed exit interviews carried out by port between 1st January 2015 and 30th September 2015 (data for 1st October 2015 is not available).