Sign up to FREE email alerts from businessInsider - Daily Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The number of foreigners undergoing British Citizenship Ceremonies in Scotland plummeted by more than a quarter last year.

The news came as separate figures showed the number of EU citizens moving to the UK was continuing to fall in the run-up to Brexit.

Citizenship Ceremonies are the required final step in becoming a UK citizen. In order to arrange one, a person must first have spent five years in the UK, or three years if they are the spouse of a UK citizen. They must also have permanent residence and show sufficient knowledge of the country - generally by passing the Life in the UK test.

Home Office data released today shows there were 3,262 Citizenship Ceremonies in Scotland in 2017, down from 4,453 in 2016.

That is a fall of 27 per cent in just one year.

The figure peaked at 5,716 in 2013 but dropped rapidly until 2015, when it stood at 3,542.

It then rose again in 2016 - potentially because of a rush to claim citizenship after the Brexit referendum - before last year’s fall.

Across the UK as a whole, the number of Citizenship Ceremonies fell by 25% from 111,596 in 2016 to 84,070 in 2017.

Edinburgh had the highest number in Scotland in 2017, with 786. Glasgow had 744, Aberdeen 400, Aberdeenshire 125 and Fife 119.

The Citizenship data was published by the Home Office as part of a raft of immigration figures released today.

They also showed net migration to the UK from the EU has fallen to its lowest level in more than five years.

Around 87,000 more long-term migrants arrived from the bloc than left in the year to the end of March.

This is the lowest figure since January to December 2012.

That fall was, however, offset by a significant rise in the number of immigrants from outside Europe.

Overall, net long-term international migration was estimated at 271,000, which is below record levels seen around 2015 and 2016 but still well above the Government's target of below 100,000.

Year-on-year, net migration was up by just under 30,000, but statisticians attributed the rise to an anomaly in previous estimates of student immigration.

Nicola Rogers, of the Office for National Statistics' Centre for Migration, said: "Today's figures show that around 270,000 more people are coming to the UK than leaving, so net migration is continuing to add to the UK population.

"Net migration has been broadly stable since peak levels seen in 2015 and 2016.

"Looking at the underlying numbers we can see that EU net migration has fallen, as fewer EU citizens are arriving in the UK, and has now returned to the level last seen in 2012.

"Previously we had seen a decline in the number of EU citizens coming who were looking for work, however this seems to have stabilised."