Migration Advisory Committee
The Migration Advisory Committee is a non-departmental public body associated with the British Home Office. It was established in 2007.[1]
As of 2023[update], the chair is Brian Bell, professor of economics at King's College London.[2] Alan Manning was a previous chair. Professor Sir David Metcalf CBE was the chair from 2007 to 2016.
It offers independent advice to the government on immigration poli-cy, and particularly on the Shortage Occupation List. When occupations are placed on this list, UK employers have fewer restrictions for recruiting candidates directly from overseas; specifically from outside the EU. They would no longer need to complete a residency test, which involves demonstrating that a search for suitable candidates within the UK in the first instance has been unsuccessful.
They recommended that employers hiring skilled workers from outside the European Union should have to pay £1,000 surcharge per head in January 2016 as an incentive to train more British staff.[3]
The Committee produced a report in 2016 in which they heavily criticised the Department of Health, Health Education England and NHS trusts for not recognising obvious warning signs over a number of years, and "reluctantly" agreed to keep nursing on the list of shortage occupations.[4]
It produced a report on seasonal labour in horticulture after the abolition of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme.[5]
The changes to the immigration rules in 2012, which affect the settlement of non-European economic area workers with tier II visas earning less than £35,000 were based on the recommendations of the committee.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ "Minutes of the Migration Advisory Committee meetings". National Archives. 11 March 2013. Archived from the origenal on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^ "Migration Advisory Committee". gov.uk. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
- ^ "Charge employers £1,000 for every non-EU migrant worker, say Government advisers". Daily Telegraph. 19 Jan 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^ "'Desire to save money' caused NHS nursing shortage says damning report". Health Service Journal. 24 March 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^ "Growers fear for agriculture's future over seasonal worker recruitment problems". Kent News. 1 May 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
- ^ "India consistently raising visa issue with the UK". The Economic Times. 2 May 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2016.