The Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, has published a Written Ministerial statement setting out the Government’s ambitions for the legal migration system.
According to the statement, there was an increase in the number of work visas issued (including dependants) in the 12 months to 31 March 2024 (605,264), that was 24% higher than in the previous year. This reflects a failure to address skills shortages and wider UK labour market issues, leading to a higher reliance on international recruitment.
To address that, Government will link migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policies – so immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems here at home. This approach will be important to enabling delivery of the Government’s broader agenda.
This is approach was for by organisations – including retail – affected by labour and skills shortages and the changes to the immigration system for many years.
The announced measures include:
- The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), Skills England, the Industrial Strategy Council, and the Labour Market Advisory Board will work together to support a coherent approach to skills, migration and labour market policy, engaging and working closely with the Devolved Governments;
- The Government will commission the MAC to review the reliance on international recruitment in key sectors, commencing with IT and engineering;
- The Government will provide additional resources to the MAC to enable it to work more strategically to forecast future trends.
The Statement also confirmed Government will keep some changes made earlier this year by the previous administration, including:
- Increasing the general salary threshold for those arriving on Skilled Worker visas by 48% from £26,200 to £38,700;
- Abolishing the 20% going rate discount so that employers can no longer pay migrants less than UK workers in shortage occupations;
- Introducing measures to reduce the potential for abuse on the student and graduate visa routes
Government will also commission the MAC to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules, keeping the minimum income requirement in the Spouse/Partner route at £29,000 until the review is complete.
There were also recent updates on the implementation of the new Entry/Exit System with the European Union – changes are due to come in force during Autum – and Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme which opened on 30 July.
If you have any comments about this or immigration policies in general, please contact luiza.gomes@brc.org.uk