United Kingdom: Migration Advisory Committee Publishes Annual Report

Key recommendations include:         

• Allowing Intra-Company Transferees to settle. The MAC produced a review on the Intra-Company Transfer route earlier this year, which concluded that the route was working well – they repeat their recommended change from this report that this route should become eligible for permanent residence in the United Kingdom.
• Adding care workers to Health and Care Visa route and Shortage Occupation List. The MAC is conducting an independent review on the impact of the end of European Economic Area Free Movement on the social care sector in the United Kingdom. Under the current law, senior care workers can be sponsored, but not care workers. This change will allow employers to sponsor care workers, subject to a minimum salary of GBP 20,480 per year.
• Reviewing ban on employment for asylum seekers. Under the current law, asylum seekers cannot work in the United Kingdom while their applications are pending – if they are waiting for a decision after a year, they can apply for permission to work in roles on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). The MAC says a delay in access to the labour market does long-term damage to integration, and notes that there is no evidence that work rights would be a pull factor to the United Kingdom. The ‘Lift the Ban’ coalition has been campaigning to allow asylum seekers to work.
• Not allowing jobs on Shortage Occupation List to be paid lower salaries than market rate. Under current law, roles on the SOL may be paid 80% of the market rate for the occupation code. Based on data from this year, only 15% of roles on the SOL paid below the going rate, but the MAC notes that if there is a shortage in the occupation, lower wages will not necessarily address the issue. In addition, the purpose of the market rate is to prevent resident workers being ‘undercut’. They suggest that the salary reduction should instead only apply to the general threshold of GBP 25,600. Lastly, they recommend that the lower salary threshold is only used for lower-paid occupations on the SOL.
• Designing formalised visa routes that can be temporarily accessed. Earlier this year, the UK government introduced temporary visa routes for various occupations such as poultry workers, butchers, and truck drivers to avoid pressure on the food industry and supply chains in the United Kingdom. The MAC is supportive of the approach that the government have taken, although they have concerns over the exact details of the routes – while these are valuable in the short term, they suggest that it would be better to introduce a formal route with clear criteria. They add that this reduces an employers’ ability to plan and is unlikely to generate the flows of migrant workers sought by the sectors in shortage.

The MAC is an independent public body that advises the UK government on migration.

The Home Office is not obligated to adopt the MAC’s recommendations, but has accepted their recommendations in the past.

If the changes are implemented into law, employers would have more access to overseas workers, particularly for lower-skilled jobs that are not permitted in the Skilled Worker work permit system.  Employers would benefit from the flexibility, although it would largely be sector-specific, other than asylum seekers, who would be able to more easily take up employment.

The Home Office would need to adopt the MAC’s recommendations into law for them to become effective. It is unlikely that the Home Office will take a view on the report before the new year and unclear whether or when they would accept the recommendations.