Transparency data

Migration Advisory Committee minutes, 16 July 2021

Updated 5 July 2022

141st meeting of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)

Friday 16th July 2021 10am to 12:30pm

Video / Telephone Conference

Attending:

• Professor Brian Bell

• Professor Dina Kiwan

• Professor Jo Swaffield

• Madeleine Sumption

• Professor Sergi Pardos-Prado

• Della McVay

• MAC Secretariat

Agenda item 1 – Welcome and introductions

1. Brian Bell opened the meeting.

Agenda item 2 – Home Office (HO), MAC secretariat and MAC updates

2. Della McVay provided an update on HO business, including the successful launch of the graduate route and good progress on the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). The HO is to take a paper on Youth Mobility Scheme to the cabinet office to explain the vision. Della McVay also noted the social care commission is now with the MAC.

3. Toby Nutley gave an update on new starters, and the delays with security clearances. Toby Nutley informed the meeting that the social care commission had been accepted and a response had gone to ministers and he also updated on progress with the social care call for evidence. The secretariat has been reviewing the full MAC website to ensure that there are no breaches data protection rules.

4. Brian Bell informed everyone that the secretariat had met with HMRC and the visa data has a good match.

Agenda item 3 – Expert advice for the social care commission

5. The secretariat presented the engagement plan for the commission. The committee are happy with the general plan. The committee are keen for continued engagement on approach with external reviewers. The committee were happy with the inclusion of the addition of the personal capacity questions. They suggested that employers could also be asked questions on demographic profiles within their organisation.

Agenda item 4 – ICT draft chapter – primary research

6. The secretariat presented the draft primary research chapter and asked for feedback. The committee suggested that the chapter needs more signposting and possibly integrating with other parts of the commission. The committee discussed how to deal with some of the responses from individual users.

7. The committee discussed how to convey the scale of responses. The committee agreed that where possible, there should be more reflection of the scale of responses in the call for evidence questions.

Agenda item 5 – ICT draft chapter – secondments and short-term options

8. The secretariat presented the history of the short-term route policy and stakeholder views on short-term work migration. The committee agreed that leave outside the rules is not satisfactory and that a specific route would be better. The committee agreed that short-term options would need specific focus and analysis in the future.

Agenda item 6 – ICT draft chapter – subsidiaries

9. The secretariat presented the subsidiary chapter and highlighted the lack of data. The committee recognised that decisions on subsidiary requirements could be arbitrary, but that subsidiary policy should be monitored and adjusted accordingly. The committee recommended that evidence should be made available, potentially via trials, in order to be able to make evidence-based decisions.

Agenda item 7 – ICT draft chapter – technical rules, skills, and salary thresholds

10. The secretariat presented the technical rules paper and asked for feedback. The committee discussed options for salary thresholds for graduates and regular ICT migrants.

11. The committee made suggestions for further analysis for each of the technical rules before presenting at the July workshop.

Agenda item 8 – AOB

12. Toby Nutley updated on returning to the workplace and implications for MAC meetings.