"The Office for National Statistics said 163,000 more people came to live in the UK for 12 months or more than had left, compared with 247,000 the year before. Direct quote from here. The article states quite clearly that net immigration dropped by a third in the year ended June 2012 compared to the previous year. - Dave the Gnome

I take it DtG that they are referring to "official" figures?

If they are then those figures are pretty pointless and non-indicative as no Government Agency or Ministry has got even the foggiest clue as to how many "immigrants" have entered this country since 1997, illegals alone as of January this year were estimated at between 860,000 and 1,000,000.