Recommendation 11

HM Government · verbatim extract Not Addressed

There are two main benefits of a job appearing on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL), which is just one option for scoring additional points in the Skilled Worker route. Firstly, these roles benefit from reduced visa fees. Secondly, lower salary thresholds are in place with an absolute minimum of £20,480 per year. As noted in the committee’s report, butchers, for example, are frequently already paid above the standard £25,600 threshold for Skilled Workers, and so do not need the additional points they would score from being on the SOL. An occupation on the SOL does not mean the wider requirements of the Skilled Worker route are disapplied, including the English language requirement and skill thresholds. Inclusion may, in some cases, be counterproductive if it stifles the wage growth needed to address shortages in the longer term. The Minister for Safe and Legal Migration wrote to the Chair of the MAC in March 2021, setting out the Government’s decision not to make wide scale changes to SOL relating to medium-skilled occupations at that time. Jobs such as meat hygiene inspectors, skilled horticulture workers, butchers, poultry dressers and veterinary nurses had only recently become eligible for Skilled Worker visas. The Government considered it was important to see the impact of this huge expansion in eligibility, as well as how the labour market recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, before making further changes. It is now clear the labour market has recovered much better than anyone had expected. Given the UK’s recent emergence from the pandemic, the Government agrees the time may now be right to revisit the SOL but does not agree with the recommendation to immediately make the changes the MAC recommended back in 2020. Those recommendations were based on evidence which is now two years old and largely garnered before the Skilled Worker route was launched or the medium-term impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic were known. The Government therefore intends to commission the MAC to review the SOL again later this year, so any changes to it can be based on the latest available evidence. We strongly encourage the sector to engage with the MAC on this review. The MAC is independent, and its terms of reference enable it to engage in work of its choosing and to comment on the operation of any aspect of the immigration system. It is, however, sponsored by the Home Office and its workplan is largely determined by commissions from the Government. We note the Chair of the MAC has written to the committee, outlining the MAC’s intention to consider the food and farming sector as part of its wider SOL review, rather than leading an independent review into the sector. We would encourage the sector to submit evidence to the MAC through the call for evidence for this review. 8 Labour shortages in the food and farming sector: Government response Seasonal Worker visa route