The Government has published a White Paper, titled Restoring Control over the Immigration System. The paper details reforms across several areas of the immigration system and many of them have an impact on employment law, particularly when it comes to recruiting overseas workers.
The Government’s overarching aim is to ensure the immigration system is linked to skills and training requirements in the UK, making it so no industry can rely solely on immigration to fill any shortages. The Home Office estimate the measures included in the paper could lead to a 100,000 drop in immigration per year by 2029.
The proposed changes are sweeping across the immigration system and include:
- Making it so that employers will no longer be able to recruit social care workers from overseas, with social care visas being closed to new applications. There will be a transition period until 2028, where visa extensions will be permitted for those already in the country with working rights
- Lifting the required level for Skilled Worker visas back to RQF 6 (degree level) and above and the salary threshold will be increased. Those already on an existing Skilled Worker visa will continue to be able to renew their visa and change employment in roles below the new level
- Requiring employers to boost domestic talent and skills if they want to recruit from abroad — if they don’t, they will be restricted from sponsoring skilled visas
- Launching new requirements for workforce strategies in sectors that have high levels of recruitment from abroad. These strategies will be used as part of an assessment to allow employers to access the immigration system via a new Temporary Shortage List
- Raising the language requirements for Skilled Workers
- Increasing the Immigration Skills Charge by 32%, meaning employers will have to pay more to sponsor workers to come to the UK
- Continuing to build on the steps taken to tackle illegal working, specifically putting resource into key sectors where it is taking place, including the gig economy.
It is expected the changes will be implemented in phases with the visa changes expected to come into effect over the course of 2025.
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