UK will review Tier 2 visa system, says Sajid Javid

New home secretary will look at problems with skilled workers and students

Sajid Javid said he was aware of the NHS’s worries over the Tier 2 visa cap © PA

   

June 3, 2018 12:01 pm by Jim Pickard in London

The UK will review its visa system for highly skilled professionals after rising criticism that it is keeping out thousands of foreign doctors and other essential workers.

“A number of my colleagues have asked me to look at this and it’s exactly what I’m doing,” said Sajid Javid, the home secretary, on Sunday.

Mr Javid also hinted that he would like to see students removed from the overall net migration figures, a move that would set him at odds with prime minister Theresa May.

Britain uses a “Tier 2” visa system for high-earning workers with a cap of 20,700 a year. The maximum monthly limit was reached for the fifth month in a row in April and no one earning under £50,000 a year was offered a visa. 

Many employers, including several hospitals, have complained that they are unable to fill jobs. Mr Javid told the BBC Andrew Marr Show that he was aware of the concern around the Tier 2 visa system, which was introduced in 2011 when Mrs May was home secretary.

He said he was particularly aware of the worries about the NHS being unable to recruit the medical staff it needed because of the visa cap. “I see a problem with that, it is something I’m taking a fresh look at,” he said.

Mr Javid was appointed as home secretary earlier this year after the resignation of Amber Rudd, his predecessor, over the mistreatment of “Windrush” immigrants from the Caribbean. 

One option would be to remove certain professions — where there are severe skills shortages in the UK — from the Tier 2 cap.

Between December and March more than 6,000 visa applications were turned down from workers including doctors, IT specialists and scientists. 

The British Medical Association has warned that the “arbitrary” cap for non-EU workers entering the UK was inexplicable and was “threatening patient care and safety”.

One reason for the recent spike in demand for non-EU skilled workers is that net immigration to the UK from the EU has slowed since the Brexit referendum in June 2016 — prompting employers to see workers from beyond Europe.

Mr Javid said he wanted the government to “look again” at the issue of removing students from Britain’s net migration target, saying he “understands” the argument in favour of doing so. “I empathise with that point”.

In the past Mrs May has implacably opposed the idea on the basis that anything that looked like an attempt to fiddle migration numbers would prompt a backlash.