The Shadow Minister of Economy, Labour and Housing has criticised what he called inadequate figures on Caribbean community labour figures.

Michael Fahy called it “very concerning” that one of his three questions to Jason Hayward, the Minister of Economy and Labour, had been denied in the House of Assembly.

The Opposition MP said it was “just plain sad”, telling The Royal Gazette: “We are asking questions because it’s important to see the data that is being relied on for assumptions that are being made in relation to work permits and the relationships that we have with Caricom members.”

On Friday in the House, Mr Fahy posed written parliamentary questions to Mr Hayward touching on Bermuda’s links to Caricom member states, with his first query seeking details on Caricom nationals with work permits in Bermuda — broken down by nationality, work permit length and job category.

He also requested the overall percentage of work permits by state.

However the Government citing standing orders disallowing excessively detailed policy questions.

Mr Fahy said afterwards: “The Government said it would take far too long to answer the questions. We were told that was pretty much the reason.”

Lovitta Foggo, the Acting Speaker of the House, told MPs the answer would entail details from 17,500 documents, meaning the ministry could not “readily give responses”.

Ms Foggo added: “In fact, the ministry made it clear that it would take them months to even try and collate the information and by the end of that, you still may not have an accurate report because things might have changed.”

However, Mr Fahy called it “very concerning” for Mr Hayward to not have the requested data at hand.

Mr Fahy explained: “Statistics like this are vital in helping shape government policy and the information requested would have gone a long way to help Bermudians understand how many guest workers there are in Bermuda from Caricom member states, especially given the Government's insistence on pushing forward with full Caricom membership.”

The shadow minister further asked how many Bermudian nationals had emigrated to Caricom member states within the past 36 months, broken down by numbers and destination states.

He also asked Mr Hayward how many meetings the minister had with other ministers of Caricom states regarding immigration, when and where they happened and with whom.

He was told that the Government does not collect emigration data, and that the minister had not met any Caricom ministers for substantive discussions on immigration matters over the past three years.

Mr Fahy called this “bizarre” given the “apparent reliance on labour from Caricom states,” which he called “all anecdotal”.

He added that the lack of data around Bermudians emigrating to Caricom member states was “just plain sad”.

Mr Fahy said that, although Bermuda might not collect emigration data, Caricom nations would likely hold records that Mr Hayward could request.

He said: “How are they making decisions without data that would seem to be very important? It’s surprising.”

He added: “Data tells the story and without it, the Government is simply not giving Bermudians a true picture of the state of play.”