A First Step Towards Better Evidence: The ACORD UK Report Launches at Parliament

On 2 July 2026, I attended the House of Commons for the launch of The Romanian Diaspora’s Contributions to the British Economy and Society, the first research report from the Advisory Council on Romanian Diaspora in the UK, produced with Bournemouth University.

The parliamentary setting gave the occasion particular weight. For years, discussion of Romanians in Britain has often relied on partial statistics, individual experience and persistent stereotypes. This report offers a valuable foundation for a better conversation. Its importance lies in gathering evidence from scattered sources while showing clearly where the available information remains incomplete.

That distinction matters because there is no single dataset that captures the Romanian community in the UK. The 2021 Census recorded 557,554 Romanian-born residents. Home Office figures, meanwhile, show more than 1.9 million applications to the EU Settlement Scheme and more than 1.3 million grants of settled or pre-settled status. These measures answer different questions. Applications may include repeat applicants, while Census figures depend on self-reporting and describe the population at a particular moment. The report treats them as related indicators rather than numbers that can be combined into a definitive population total.

The same care is needed when reading the economic evidence. HMRC recorded 349,700 Romanian payrolled employments in December 2025, with median monthly pay of £2,427, close to the UK median of £2,555. Payrolled employments are jobs rather than a count of unique people. The latest official nationality-specific estimate of direct Income Tax and National Insurance contributions, £2.399 billion, relates to 2019/20. Contributions from self-employment are harder to isolate, especially in sectors where many Romanians work. By identifying these limits, the report makes a persuasive case for better data collection.

Other findings reveal the community’s reach. Recorded Romanian-nationality staff in NHS England increased from 3,098 in June 2016 to 6,575 in June 2025. Construction workforce research from 2022 estimated that Romanians accounted for about 5 per cent of workers nationally and roughly 19 per cent in London. Yet the available NHS records do not fully connect nationality with professional training, role, seniority or career progression. Some sector figures combine Romanians and Bulgarians as an EU2 category, which means they are useful proxies rather than Romanian-only counts.

These caveats do not diminish the report. They are part of its contribution. Through official statistics, Freedom of Information requests, public databases and earlier research, the ACORD UK team has created a practical starting point for policymakers and researchers. It shows what can already be said with confidence and maps the work still required.

The recommendations follow directly from that evidence: harmonise official datasets, measure self-employment more effectively, recognise underused professional skills, improve NHS workforce information and invest in trusted Romanian-language communication. The report also proposes a British-Romanian governmental working group to sustain cooperation.

I was glad to see this work presented in Parliament. A first report cannot answer every question about a large and diverse diaspora. It can establish the questions that deserve serious attention, give future research a firmer base and move public discussion closer to the evidence. ACORD UK has taken that important first step.