How the ledger treats evidence
Migration Ledger is designed to keep the source statement, the classification and the displayed figure separate. A record can be migration-related without implying that the amount is a final cost or that only one population benefited.
1. Source basis
Financial Ledger records come from official government grant registers and are kept at scheme level to reduce double counting risk. Operational statistics are stored separately from the financial Ledger and come from official Home Office Immigration System Statistics, Migration Transparency Data and Windrush Compensation Scheme releases. Statistical tables never feed the registered-value total.
2. Registered values are not automatically expenditure
The ledger labels the imported money field as a registered scheme value / value per year unless a source explicitly gives a more precise meaning. It must not automatically be described as final expenditure, final payments, net cost, or an amount received by a particular person.
3. Classification
Categories describe the stated purpose of the source record. Border security and returns records are deliberately separated from support/resettlement records so unlike activities are not conflated.
4. Geography
A record is only linked to a UK map area where the source itself provides a usable geographic connection. UK-wide or international records remain in the ledger without being forced onto a local authority map.
5. Publication gate
HOUSE stores both draft and published records. The public API returns only records explicitly marked published. New file imports should normally be reviewed in draft first.
6. Operational statistics
Counts, percentages, work-in-progress figures, visa applications and outcomes, safe-and-legal-route data, passenger arrivals, ETA data, enforcement data, sponsorship data, citizenship data and Windrush statistics are presented in the Data & Timelines section. HOUSE stores the official workbook as evidence and publishes a compact latest-period view while preserving the source link. Civil-registration and unrelated Home Office operational tables can be archived without being published as migration evidence.
7. Missing values
Missing, unavailable or unreported values remain blank/null. They are never converted to zero.