Work-based immigration

The committee welcomes responses from anyone with answers to the questions in the call for evidence. The deadline to submit evidence is 11:59pm on 27 October 2026.

What the committee is asking

The government set out its approach to work migration in its May 2025 immigration white paper Restoring control over the immigration system. The government has committed to linking migration and skills policy and reducing reliance on overseas recruitment.

In a series of deliberative workshops commissioned by the Home Affairs Committee, members of the public considered the trades off associated with work migration policy and agreed a set of principles that should underpin decision making. The top principle agreed by participants was that the government should prioritise training, upskilling and employment opportunities for UK residents, especially young people, before relying on migrant labour.

The Committee will consider how this principle, alongside others agreed through the deliberative workshops, can be built into immigration policy, in particular the administration of the Skilled Worker visa. This inquiry will scrutinise the linkages between migration, skills and training policy, and look at what role migration should have in addressing labour shortages. The Committee is requesting evidence on the following topics:

The link between immigration policy and investment in skills, training and domestic recruitment

What impact does immigration policy have on investment in domestic skills and training by employers?

Is there more the Home Office could do to encourage skills investment through immigration policy?

To what extent – and over what time frames – can skills policy influence the scale of international recruitment by employers?

What impact could sector level workforce strategies have on international recruitment? What is necessary to make these plans successful?

How, if at all, should the approach the government takes to linking immigration and skills policy vary depending on the level of training required for different jobs?

Are there mechanisms the Home Office could use to incentivise domestic recruitment?

What evidence is there for the effectiveness of resident labour market tests in encouraging domestic recruitment?

Addressing shortages

To what extent should addressing labour shortages be prioritised in immigration policy?

When, if at all, should international recruitment be allowed to meet labour shortages in lower-paid jobs, and jobs that require less training? How can the skill level of occupations in shortage be accurately and fairly determined?

What has been the experience of sectors with labour shortages that have historically been able to recruit internationally? Has this led to a reduction in shortages?

What evidence is available on the effectiveness of shortage lists as a mechanism for using the immigration system to respond to labour shortages?

How long should sectors with shortages be allowed access to the Temporary Shortage List? What should happen if shortages remain unresolved after this period?

How can the government effectively assess whether sectors are taking adequate steps to address shortages? What approach should be taken when the causes of labour shortages may be due to factors outside of employers’ control?

What rights and conditions should apply to visas for immigrants coming to work in occupations on the Temporary Shortage List?

Should workers in these roles be permitted to bring dependants, and if so what conditions should apply to dependent visas?

When, if at all, are strictly temporary visas appropriate?

How important is immigration to responding to shortages in the public sector, and what role does immigration have in workforce planning in sectors such as health, education and justice?

Should there be different immigration rules for jobs that deliver essential services – such as prison guards or health and care workers? If so, how should rules be different for these jobs?

Implementation

What objectives should the Home Office seek to achieve when setting salary thresholds?

To what extent does the current approach to setting salary thresholds achieve these objectives?

What impact does changing rules on eligibility for work visas have on businesses, employers and workers?

Is it more important to have a responsive or consistent approach to work migration policy?

What improvements could be made to the work visa system to ensure that migrant workers are treated fairly, with dignity and respect?

What mechanisms are needed to support migrants who lose their jobs after they arrive in the UK, through no fault of their own?

Cross-government working

How could the Home Office work more effectively with other government departments to develop a work migration system that achieves its aims – such as growing the economy and delivering essential services – while reducing net migration?

How effective is the Labour Market Evidence Group in supporting joined up, cross-departmental policy making?

How does the government assess the economic and fiscal impact of work migration, and how does this inform decisions about immigration policy? How could the evaluation of economic impact be improved?

How is reliance on international recruitment considered in workforce planning and policy formation across government departments?

Written evidence must address the terms of reference as set out above, but submissions do not have to address every point.

We encourage submissions from academics, researchers and organisations with experience and expertise in labour migration and workforce and skills policy.

Submissions based on personal experiences of the work migration system will not usually be published. This inquiry has been informed by engagement with the public and there will be further work to engage members of the public during the course of the inquiry.

Why this inquiry exists

This inquiry will examine work migration to the UK. It will:

scrutinise the government's approach to the Skilled Worker visa

consider how decisions are made about which occupations should be eligible for work visas

examine the link between skills policy and immigration policy

consider when and how work migration should form part of the response to labour shortages

evaluate the effectiveness of cross-government working on work migration

Read the call for evidence for more detail about the inquiry.

How to send evidence

Evidence goes to the committee through Parliament’s own form. There is no way to submit it from here: Parliament publishes no API for written evidence, so the button above opens the committee’s page.

What you send is published under your name and can be quoted in the committee’s report. Keep it under 3,000 words, send it as a document rather than a letter in the body of an email, and answer the questions above rather than writing generally.

Open the inquiry on committees.parliament.uk