Parliamentary Committee says immigration cap does not fit and may even be counter-productive
Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee on Friday published a report looking at skill shortages and Tier 2 of the Points Based System.
Image credit: UK GovernmentYou can read it here in HTML or here in PDF.
From April 2011, the Government introduced an annual cap of 20,700 Tier 2 (General) visas, with a limited number of visas being available each month, and the Home Affairs Select Committee says while this cap may serve a purpose in discouraging recruitment from non-EU countries, it has stimulated recruitment from EU countries.
The Committee says that the Tier 2 cap has not worked as intended to reduce the number of people coming to the UK to take up work.
Chair of the Committee Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP said: "The government's immigration cap does not fit, it may even be counter-productive. It is having no effect on bringing down net migration. The latest net migration figures show a third of a million people entered the UK last year, roughly the size of Cardiff, making the Tier 2 cap of 20,700 minimal in comparison. Yet it blocks the recruitment of vitally needed skills required by individual employers and the economy as a whole. When the monthly allocation is used up, employers are left with a stark choice between a nurse or an engineer. Britain must be open for business, to achieve this we need skilled workers."
The Home Affairs Committee's report states in its conclusions: "The Tier 2 cap of 20,700 appears to play a very limited role in Government attempts to restrict net migration. There are no immediate consequences if the Government fails to reach its overall target to reduce migration to the tens of thousands. There are real consequences if the cap on Tier 2 visas is reached, as was discovered in June 2015. Reaching the monthly quota of Certificates of Sponsorship means employers, who had done all that was asked of them, and who had fulfilled the same criteria as those applying in the previous month, were unable to bring in skilled workers who had a definite offer of a job. Although this is the corollary of having a cap in place, it makes planning recruitment difficult and can disrupt plans to expand or deliver services. Those refused included engineers, IT professionals, accountants on graduate training schemes, teachers and nurses. We welcome the decision of the Migration Advisory Committee to look again at how the system for Tier 2 skilled worker visas operates which we see as an acknowledgement that the imposition of restrictions has the potential to damage the UK economy."
The report also said that it is unsatisfactory that there is currently no appeal process for Tier 2 decisions.
Vaz said: "Employers need the right of appeal to challenge a system that is slow, unimaginative and cumbersome. Businesses need an adequate amount of time to respond, particularly given the Home Office's poor record at producing information to short deadlines."
The Institute of Directors (IoD) welcomed the Committee's report, with IoD Head of Employment and Skills Seamus Nevin saying: "The government must listen to the concerns raised by the Home Affairs Select Committee. The problems with our immigration system are difficult and politically-charged. The debate has, at times, been toxic, and businesses have found themselves caught between needing to address specific skills shortages to raise productivity while being unfairly attacked for having to hire from overseas. The government's bizarre and unachievable net migration target has not only caused great difficulties for British employers, but has also put off foreign businesses from investing in the UK."
A Home Office spokesperson told BBC News that the Government would consider the report's recommendations. The spokesperson said in the past it had been "too easy" for some businesses to bring in workers from overseas rather than to train up British workers: "We want to ensure that businesses are able to attract the skilled migrants they need, but we also want them to get far better at recruiting and training UK workers first."