82-page document, Restoring Control over the Immigration System, is published
A significant day for immigration law has seen the Government publish its White Paper and the Prime Minister making a major speech promising that the UK will 'take back control' of its borders after the previous Conservative government's "experiment in open borders".
You can download the 82-page White Paper here.
In his speech this morning, Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged that migration is part of Britain's story and migrants make a massive contribution to the UK, but he said immigration needs to be cut significantly. He said the proposals in the White Paper will deliver an immigration system that is "controlled, selective and fair," and which marks a clean break with the past.
As we reported yesterday on EIN, the White Paper introduces plans for sweeping reforms across the immigration system. The standard qualifying period for settlement in the UK will rise from five years to ten, the qualification threshold for a skilled worker visas rises to a bachelor's degree, and the care worker visa route will close for overseas recruitment. There will be new rules on the ability of migrants to speak English and the contribution that people bring to the UK. Foreign nationals who commit crimes will face faster deportation.
The White Paper helpfully sets out a bullet-point summary of its many reforms, which is excerpted and reproduced below:
HM Government
Restoring Control over the Immigration System
May 2025
CP 326
[…]
Presented to Parliament
by the Secretary of State for the Home Department
by Command of His Majesty
[…]
The immigration system must be linked to skills and training requirements here in the UK, so that no industry is allowed to rely solely on immigration to fill its skills shortages.
Work Reforms
• We will lift the level for skilled workers back to RQF 6 and above. Salary thresholds will rise.
• We will increase the Immigration Skills Charge for the first time since its introduction in 2017, by 32% in line with inflation.
• We will close social care visas to new applications from abroad. For a transition period until 2028, we will permit visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights, but this will be kept under review.
• We will establish the Labour Market Evidence Group to draw on the best data available in order to make informed decisions about the state of the labour market and the role that different policies should play, rather than always relying on migration.
• We will launch new requirements for workforce strategies for key sectors where there are high levels of recruitment from abroad.
• We will establish a new Temporary Shortage List to provide time limited access to the Points-Based immigration system. Occupations below RQF 6 must be listed on the Temporary Shortage List in order to gain access to the immigration system.
• Access to the Points-Based immigration system will be limited to occupations where there have been long term shortages, on a time limited basis, where the MAC has advised it is justified, where there is a workforce strategy in place, and where employers seeking to recruit from abroad are committed to playing their part in increasing recruitment from the domestic workforce.
• We will explore how to ensure that employers, using the immigration system, are incentivised to invest in boosting domestic talent, including options to restrict employers sponsoring skilled visas if they are not committed to increasing skills training.
• We will introduce reforms to allow a limited pool of UNHCR recognised refugees and displaced people to apply for employment through our existing skilled worker routes, where they have the skills to do so.
• We will go further in ensuring that the very highly skilled have opportunities to come to the UK and access our targeted routes for the brightest and best global talent.
The immigration system must be linked to skills and training requirements here in the UK, so that no industry is allowed to rely solely on immigration to fill its skills shortages.
Study Reforms
• We will strengthen the requirements that all sponsoring institutions must meet in order to recruit international students.
• We will raise the minimum pass requirement of each Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) metric by five percentage points, so that – for example – a sponsor must maintain a course enrolment rate of at least 95% and a course completion rate of 90% in order to pass the compliance threshold.
• We will implement a new Red-Amber-Green banding system to rate the BCA performance of each sponsor, so that it is clear to them, the authorities and the public which institutions are achieving a high rate of compliance, and which are at risk of failing.
• We will introduce new interventions for sponsors who are close to failing their metrics, including placing them on a bespoke action plan designed to improve their compliance, and imposing limits on the number of new international students they can recruit while they are subject to those plans.
• We will require all sponsors wishing to use recruitment agents for overseas students to sign up to the Agent Quality Framework, designed to maintain the highest standards of agent management, and ensure that institutions cannot simply outsource their responsibility to ensure that the individuals whose visas they are sponsoring are genuinely coming to the UK to study.
• We will ensure there are arrangements, for future international student recruitment, for sponsoring institutions to demonstrate that they are considering local impacts when taking its decisions on international recruitment.
• We will conduct a review of the Short-Term Study accreditation bodies to ensure that their processes are robust and consider what further checks need to be put in place to ensure the right level of scrutiny is being applied both before an organisation is accredited, and when that accreditation is renewed.
• We will reduce the ability for Graduates to remain in the UK after their studies to a period of 18 months.
• We will explore introducing a levy on higher education provider income from international students, to be reinvested into skills.
The rules must be respected and enforced - from our crackdown on illegal working to the deportation of foreign criminals.
• We will tighten up the rules we apply both at the border, and within our immigration system, to make it easier to refuse entry or asylum to those individuals who break the rules or break our laws.
• We are introducing measures so that where people do break the rules or break our laws, there are stronger powers and proper enforcement in place to track them down, arrest them, and remove them from our country.
• We will simplify the rules and processes for removing foreign national offenders and take further targeted action against any recent arrivals who commit crimes in the UK before their offending can escalate.
• We will strengthen border security by rolling out digital identity for all overseas citizens through the implementation of eVisas and new systems for checking visa compliance, replacing the former Biometric Residence Permit cards.
• We will introduce tighter controls, restrictions and scrutiny of those who attempt to abuse and misuse the immigration system, and who arrive with a pre-existing intention to claim asylum on, or after, arrival, when there has been no material change in their home country to warrant such a claim.
• We will continue to take steps to tackle illegal working, continuing to surge resource into the key sectors where illegal working is taking place – including in the gig economy – and using eVisas and modern biometric technology to support our Immigration Enforcement raids – facilitated by the 1,000 staff redeployed into enforcement and returns since the election.
• We will build on existing banking measures to ensure these reflect advances in technology and work across Government to take action against those who have not respected the rules by failing to pay tax owed.
• Later this year, we will set out more detailed reforms and stronger measures to ensure our laws are upheld, including streamlining and speeding up the removals process.
• It is right that we take action against foreign national offenders in the UK before they get the opportunity to put down roots in the UK, and that we do what is necessary to protect local communities and prevent crime.
The system must support integration and community cohesion, including new rules on the ability to speak English and the contribution that people bring to the UK.
• We will increase language requirements for Skilled Workers and workers where a language requirement already applies from B1 to B2 (Independent User) levels, in accordance with the Common European Framework for Reference for Languages (CEFR).
• We will introduce a new English language requirement for all adult dependants of workers and students at level A1 (Basic User) to align to spousal and partner routes and will work towards increasing this requirement over time.
• We will introduce requirements to demonstrate progression to level A2 (Basic User) for any visa extension, and B2 (Independent User) for settlement.
• We will increase our existing requirements for settlement across the majority of immigration routes from B1 to B2 (Independent User).
• We will reform our settlement and citizenship rules by expanding the Points-Based System and increasing the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years.
• Individuals will have the opportunity to reduce the qualifying period to settlement and citizenship based on contributions to the UK economy and society.
• We will continue to offer a shorter pathway to settlement for non-UK dependants of British citizens to five years, and we will retain existing safeguards to protect the vulnerable, including settlement rights for victims of domestic violence and abuse.
• We will create a new bereaved parent route, allowing those in the UK on the route of a parent of a British or settled child, but who have tragically lost their child, to settle immediately.
• We will also conduct a refresh of the Life in the UK test and how it operates and consider measures to reduce the financial barriers to young adults, who have lived here through their childhood, from accessing British nationality.
• We will ensure children who have been in the UK for some time, turn 18 and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle. This will also include a clear pathway for those children in care and care leavers.
The House of Commons held a debate on the White Paper and the immigration system this afternoon. Ahead of the debate, the Deputy Speaker criticised the Government for briefing the media about its contents ahead of Parliament, stressing that significant policy announcements should be made to MPs first.
In her opening statement on the White Paper, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper provided the following summary of its key aims and objectives:
The White Paper we are publishing today … is built on five core principles: first, that net migration must come down, so the system is properly managed and controlled; secondly, that the immigration system must be linked to skills and training here in the UK, so that no industry is allowed to rely solely on immigration to fill its skills shortages; thirdly, that the system must be fair and effective, with clearer rules in areas such as respect for family life, to prevent perverse outcomes that undermine public confidence; fourthly, that the rules must be respected and enforced, including tackling illegal and irregular migration and deporting foreign criminals; and finally, that the system must support integration and community cohesion, including new rules on the ability to speak English and the contribution that people can bring to the UK.
[…]
This White Paper sets out how we restore control to the legal migration system so that it is sustainable and fair, and works for the UK. First, we are overhauling the approach to labour market policy, so that for the first time, we properly link the immigration system to skills and training here in the UK. Where there are skills or labour shortages in the UK, immigration should not always be the answer to which employers turn. The long-term failure to tackle skills shortages, bring in proper workforce planning, get UK residents back into work, or improve pay, terms and conditions here at home is bad for our economy as well as for the immigration system, because it undermines productivity and growth. We will lift the threshold for skilled worker visas back to graduate level and above, removing up to 180 different jobs from the list and increasing salary thresholds. For lower-skilled jobs, access to the points-based system will be limited to jobs that are on a new temporary shortage list, including jobs that are critical to the industrial strategy, but that access will be time-limited; there must be a domestic workforce strategy in place, and employers must act to increase domestic recruitment.
We will also expect workforce strategies to be drawn up more widely in higher-skilled areas where there is overreliance on recruitment from abroad. To support that work, we will establish a new labour market evidence group. It will bring together skills bodies from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; the Department for Work and Pensions; the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council; and the Migration Advisory Committee to gather and share evidence on shortage occupations in different parts of the country, and to highlight the role that skills, training, pay and conditions and other policies can play in improving domestic recruitment, so that increased migration is never again the only answer to the shortages that the economy faces.
This new approach means that we also need to act on social care. The introduction of the social care visa led not only to a huge increase in migration, but to a shameful and deeply damaging increase in abuse and exploitation. When proper checks were finally brought in, 470 care providers had their licence to sponsor international staff suspended, and 39,000 care workers were displaced. Overseas recruitment to care jobs has since dropped, but it must not surge like that again. It is time we addressed the domestic issues, including with a proper fair pay agreement, to show respect to people who do some of the most important jobs in the country. We are therefore ending overseas recruitment of care workers. It will continue to be possible to extend existing visas, and to recruit displaced care workers and people on other visas, with working rights, who are already in the UK.
Alongside the new visa controls and workforce strategies, we will increase by 32% the immigration skills charge paid by employers who recruit from abroad. That money will be invested through the spending review in supporting skills and training here in the UK. We will ensure that Britain continues to attract the brightest and best global talent by enhancing visa routes for very high-skilled individuals, top scientific and design talent, and people with the right experience to support growth in key strategic industries.
International students bring huge benefits to the UK, supporting our world-leading universities and bringing in top talent and investment, but we will strengthen compliance requirements and checks to prevent visa misuse. Too many people on the graduate visa are not doing graduate jobs, so we will reduce the unrestricted period from two years to 18 months. Those who want to stay will need to get a graduate job and a skilled worker visa, so that we ensure that they are contributing to the economy.
Our rules on work visas are based on the contribution we expect people to make when they come to our country, and we will consult later this year on new earned settlement and citizenship rules that apply the same approach. We will extend the principles of the points-based system, doubling the standard qualifying period for settlement to 10 years, but there will be provisions to qualify more swiftly that take account of the contribution people have made. As the ability to speak English is integral to everyone's ability to contribute and integrate, we will introduce new, higher language requirements across a range of visa routes, for both main applicants and their dependants, so that family, too, can work, integrate and contribute.
The system for family migration has become overly complex. Policies have increasingly developed around case law, following court decisions, rather than being part of a co-ordinated framework set out by Parliament. We will set out a new, clearer framework to be endorsed by Parliament, which will include clarification of how article 8 rules should be interpreted and applied, to prevent confusion or perverse conclusions.
We will review current community sponsorship schemes that support recognised refugees, and we will continue to take action against trafficking and modern slavery. We will shortly appoint a new Windrush commissioner to ensure that the lessons from Windrush continue to be learned, and so that the Home Office ensures that its standards are upheld.
The rules must be respected and enforced across the board. We will bring in stronger controls where there is evidence of visa misuse. We are rolling out e-visas and digital ID. There will be better use of technology to monitor when people are overstaying on their visa, and to support an increase in illegal working raids. Already since the election we have increased returns, and we will go further.
Those who come to our country must abide by our laws, so we will develop new procedures to ensure that the Home Office is informed of all foreign nationals who have been convicted of offences—not just those who go to prison—so that we can revoke visas and remove perpetrators of a wide range of crimes who are abusing our system.