How 166,000 migrants were missed by civil service staff who voted to strike after being asked to be at their desks two days a week

The Office for National Statistics is facing accusations it is failing to do its job properly after it admitted missing 166,000 migrants who came to Britain in the space of a year - as MPs call for an explanation on concerns over the quality of its data. Dame Meg Hillier MP, chair of the Treasury Committee, wrote to the UK's national statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond last week to express 'major concerns' over the UK's ability to set good fiscal policy if it doesn't have reliable data on its workforce. It prompted Dr Swati Dhingra, who sits on the bank's rate-setting monetary policy committee hit out at the Office for National Statistics over inaccuracies in its labour force survey. Dr Swati Dhingra, who sits on the Bank of England's rate-setting monetary policy committee has blasted the ONS over the state of the Labour Force Survey ONS headquarters in Newport, Wales. Workers have voted to strike after being told to return to the office two days a week Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the PCS trade union, claimed ONS workers can 'work at home just as well, if not better, than being in the office' Former ONS statistician Richard Clegg told the Telegraph the survey was being affected by the fact people don't have time to take part in the study, particularly if they are at work, and were being bogged down by the 200-plus page questionnaire.