Migration Advisory Committee minutes, 14 February 2020
Published 28 July 2021
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124th meeting of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)
Friday 14th February 2020 11am to 1:30pm
Conference room 6, 2 Marsham Street, London
Attending:
- Professor Alan Manning
- Professor Jo Swaffield
- Professor Jackline Wahba
- Madeleine Sumption
- Professor Brian Bell
- Professor Jennifer Smith
- Paul Regan
- MAC Secretariat
Agenda item 1 - Welcome and introductions
1. The chair opened the meeting and welcomed a new member of staff to the secretariat.
Agenda item 2 - Home Office, MAC Secretariat and MAC updates
2. Paul Regan updated the MAC on Home Office business.
3. Toby Nutley provided an update. The MAC is starting a program of engagement with other departments and organisations, and Alan Manning and Madeleine Sumption are due to go to the HASC later this month. There is no update on a possible interim chair yet. The committee discussed the potential difficulties of working and accepting commissions without a chair.
4. Alan Manning provided an update on MAC work, noting that the report “A Points-Based System and Salary Thresholds for Immigration” has now been published.
Agenda item 3 – Annual report
5. Alan Manning and Toby Nutley introduced the agenda item. It is anticipated the annual report will cover a variety of topics and refer to other MAC reports, but the precise content and timing will need to be balanced against any future commissions.
Agenda item 4 – Research and evaluation team plans
6. The secretariat provided an update on research and evaluation plans. These include developing a longitudinal study that can be used for evaluation, as well as feeding into other analytical products. The committee were invited to provide feedback on the research proposals.
7. The committee agreed it would be helpful to discuss the proposals in further detail before going forward.
Agenda item 5 – Economics and data team plans
8. The secretariat provided an update on the economics and data team plans. Work is progressing on access ASHE data, and over the next few months they will be looking at the earning and occupation progression of migrants.
Agenda item 7 – Policy and stakeholder team plans
9. The secretariat presented the work plan for the policy and stakeholder team. The team are looking to reintroduce stakeholder forums and sought the committee’s views on who else should be included in these.
Agenda item 8 – Lessons learnt review
10. Alan Manning and Toby Nutley invited the committee to provide any reaction to the recently published “A Points-Based System and Salary Thresholds for Immigration” report. The committee discussed the positive and negatives of the report writing process, as well as specifics of the report and its reception.
Agenda item 9 – Any other business
11. The committee and the secretariat thanked Alan for his contributions to the MAC.