Response letter from Professor Brian Bell to the Home Secretary, 10 September 2024 (accessible)
Published 10 September 2024
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Migration Advisory Committee
2nd Floor Peel Building NE
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP
Home Secretary
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
10 September 2024
Dear Home Secretary,
Thank you for your letter dated 10th September 2024 in which you have asked the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements for family visas including the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) and Adequate Maintenance Requirement. We accept this commission and note your request that, as is the case with the sectors review commission, this review be carried out within a nine-month timescale.
We welcome the recent steps to increase the capacity of the MAC Secretariat and ongoing planning for enhanced Committee capacity, and have accepted both commissions with an expectation that this enhanced Committee capacity will be in place by the end of October.
To conduct this review within nine months, we would be grateful for the full co-operation of government and Home Office colleagues to swiftly provide us with data, including, but not limited to:
- Home Office Management Information on applicants of the family visa (including partner, child, and parent routes) from 2018 to present including demographic variables such as age, nationality, and region as well as any available data on the income used to meet the MIR and Adequate Maintenance, both level and type of income, by 1st October 2024.
- Migrant Journey data for family visa holders, before becoming family visa holders (where applicable) and subsequently into other visa routes or settlement, from 2018 to present, by 1st October 2024.
- HMRC and Home Office linked data for those on the family visa, from 2019 to most recent available, by 1st October 2024.
- Data from DWP or other government departments related to benefits.
We will provide an update by 1st October 2024 if progress in accessing the data is not made, as any delays in receiving the data will lead to a delay in the publication of our report. We will be launching a full Call for Evidence for this review which will provide stakeholders with an opportunity to give their views.
On behalf of the Migration Advisory Committee,
Yours sincerely,
Professor Brian Bell
Chair, Migration Advisory Committee