A police study shows that offending rates among immigrants from Eastern Europe are in line with the rest of the UK population.

Here are some facts about immigration in the UK:

• As a member of the European Union, the UK cannot regulate the number of people from the European Economic Area (EEA) entering the country.
• Most EEA nationals also have the automatic right to work in the UK.
• Foreign-born people account for about 10% of the UK population, (12% of the working-age population) up from just over 6% in 1981 and just over 8% in 2001.
• In 2006, 3% of immigrants were born in Africa and the Middle East, and 2.5% in the Indian subcontinent.
• Those born in the so-called "A8" countries - Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia - made up less than 1% of the working age population and just over 7% of the total immigrant population of working age.
• Immigrants from A8 countries accounted for one in three of new immigrants since 2004.
• Among A8 workers registering for employment in the 12 months to September 2007, 62% said they intended to stay for less than one year.
• In 2006 there was an estimated net immigration of 191,000 people.
• Around 591,000 long-term migrants arrived to live in the UK in that year, while 400,000 people left to live abroad. Official projections suggest net immigration will continue at around this level.
• At the current rate, migration alone is responsible for adding around 0.3% to the overall UK population. But this does not include children born to immigrant couples in the UK. In 2006, 21% of babies born in the UK were from mothers who were themselves born outside the country.
• The UK population grew from 56.4 million in 1981 to 60.6 million in 2006.  By 2031 UK population is expected to be 71.1 million - more than two thirds of this growth is attributable, directly or indirectly, to future net immigration.
• The white percentage of the population fell from 93% in 2001 to 90% in 2007.
• From the early 1990s to 2006 the share of adults who considered "immigration and race relations" as the most important issue facing Britain increased from less than 5% to over 40%.
• A Home Office research study found that in 1999/2000, first generation migrants in the UK contributed £31.2 billion in taxes and consumed £28.8 billion in benefits and public services - a net contribution to the public purse of £2.5 billion.
• The Institute for Public Policy Research think tank found that for the 2003/04 tax year, migrants contributed 10% of Government receipts and accounted for 9.1% of public expenditure. In 2006, the UK economy was boosted by £6 billion through migration, figures suggest.
• The number of job vacancies in the UK has risen to 680,000, while the number of people in work is at a record high, with an employment rate of 74.1%. Ministers claim that this shows that immigration has not come at the expense of UK jobs.
• But anti-immigration pressure group Migration Watch claims immigration has increased pressure on resources and housing, and suppressed wages.
• And a House of Lords' all-party Economic Affairs Committee cast doubt over Government claims that immigration is good for the economy, concluding that record levels of immigration to the UK had led to "little or no impact" on economic wellbeing.