Migration Advisory Committee minutes, 17 January 2020
Published 28 July 2021
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123rd meeting of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)
17 January 2020, 11:00am to 1:30pm
Conference room 2, 2 Marsham Street, London
Attending:
- Professor Alan Manning
- Professor Jo Swaffield
- Professor Brian Bell
- Professor Jackline Wahba
- Madeleine Sumption
- Professor Jennifer Smith
- Paul Regan
- MAC Secretariat
Agenda item 1 - Welcome and introductions
Agenda item 2 - Home Office, MAC Secretariat and MAC updates
1. Paul Regan updated the MAC on Home Office business and direction: the Home Secretary’s priorities are becoming clearer following the general election and 2020 will be a busy year, with preparing to leave the EU and have a new migration system in place for the end of the transition period.
2. Toby Nutley provided an updated on the publication timeline and briefly outlined thinking on dissemination once the report is published.
Agenda item 3 – Letter to the Home Secretary
3. The head of the secretariat presented a draft letter to the Home Secretary, that will sit alongside the forthcoming report, and outlines the planned timescales and approach for the first annual report, as set out in the original Home Secretary commission on salary thresholds and the 2018 White Paper. There was a brief discussion and committee members agreed the planned approach and drafting.
Agenda item 4 – Report Walkthrough
4. The chair took the committee through the entire draft report. The key focus was on agreeing the recommendations. Each recommendation was discussed in detail and drafting and substance agreed by the committee.
5. The secretariat will now incorporate these into the final draft and complete formatting, updating etc., in order to enable the report to be published by 28 January.
6. The annexes and fiscal report by Oxford Economics were also agreed.
7. ACTION: secretariat to update the drafting to reflect the discussions
8. The chair and head of the secretariat both thanked everyone for their work in getting the report completed.
Agenda item 5 – Future workplans
9. The head of the economics and data team outlined high level future workplans that will feed into the annual report. The committee agreed with the general direction outlined but requested more detail for the next meeting.
10. There was insufficient time for a detailed discussion on the plans for research and evaluation and the committee agreed these should be brought back to the next meeting.
11. ACTION: for the secretariat to update papers and return to the next meeting with these for discussion
Agenda item 6 – Any other business
12. The committee members were invited to attend the press launch event if they were available. There was no other additional business.