Migration Advisory Committee minutes, 16 September 2022
Updated 6 July 2023
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Migration Advisory Committee
2nd Floor, Peel Building NE
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Minutes of the 155th meeting of the Migration Advisory Committee
Friday 16 September 2022 10:00am to 12:30pm.
Video / Telephone conference
Attending
- Professor Brian Bell
- Professor Dina Kiwan
- Professor Sergi Pardos-Prado
- Madeleine Sumption
- Professor Jo Swaffield
- Della Mcvay
- Toby Nutley
- MAC Secretariat
Agenda Item 1 – Welcome and introductions
1. Brian Bell opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees. Brian also introduced a new starter to the secretariat.
Agenda Item 2 – Home Office, MAC Secretariat and MAC updates
2. Della Mcvay updated the committee and secretariat members on Home Office business, including the appointments of the new Home Secretary, ministers, and SpAds. Their preferred methods on receiving information (including the PMs) were detailed to the MAC. Further ministerial appointments are due to be announced after the mourning period.
3. Toby Nutley updated the committee on recruiting a 6th committee member, applications for which have now closed. Toby also gave a secretariat staffing changes update and mentioned work with DEFRA. The work with DEFRA relates to shortages in the food and farming sector with an aim to report in spring 2023 – migration is not the key focus of the review.
4. Brian Bell gave an update on meeting the Lieutenant General from the Cabinet Office on small boats. The most common migrant nationality through this mode of entering is now Albanian rather than Afghan and Syrian refugees. A meeting between the Home Secretary and Brian may take place at some point.
5. Minutes accepted from last committee meeting.
Agenda item 3 – SOL: data issues, commission update and draft letter to Home Office
6. The secretariat updated on the SOL commission including timings, committee workshops, and a draft letter to be sent to the Home Office once a decision a round SOC codes has been made. Allocating occupations to each committee member was discussed and will be progressed in a draft manner, before being firmed up in January 2023 following call for evidence (CfE) responses.
7. ONS data issues around SOC2020 were also discussed and the reasons behind ONS’s delayed response. The secretariat is still unsure about whether SOC2020 will be usable.
8. Brian suggested writing up the chapter on policy and abolishing the going rate whilst the CfE is live.
Agenda item 4 – Going rates smoothing analysis
9. The secretariat updated the committee on going rates and how its analysis has developed since the July meeting. There were discussions around bias, and whether this was entirely due to the small sample sizes.
10. Committee also discussed where to smooth out the going rates and reasoning for doing this when it has not been performed previously.
Agenda item 5 – Annual Report: exploitation
11. The secretariat updated the committee on the chapter, presenting a first draft. The secretariat also discussed its attendance at the Home Office Vulnerability Advisory Group who provided a wealth of comments, opinions and evidence regarding the topic of exploitation.
12. Committee were broadly happy with the chapter, providing minor comments around wording and the examples of exploitation for inclusion.
Agenda item 6 – Annual Report: geography
13. The secretariat updated the committee on the chapter. The secretariat are still waiting on clarification from ONS around census data, but they do not anticipate this to be problematic.
14. Committee discussed the data and a need to look at the nations, total and natural population change - particularly Scotland.
Agenda item 7 – Devolved nations update and profile for Northern Ireland
15. The secretariat provided an overview of its analysis of the Northern Ireland labour market highlighting the prominence of Belfast in what is a predominantly rural lower wage (compared to the rest of the UK) nation.
Agenda item 8 – Migrant wage progression
16. In interests of time, this item was skipped with an ask made for comments via email and discussion at the next committee meeting.
Agenda item 9 – Indeed analysis
17. The secretariat asked for final comments on the analysis and chapter in general before the chapter lead leaves and passes the work on to someone else to finalise. The committee were happy with the paper.
Agenda item 10 – AOB
18. Brian bid farewell to secretariat members moving on.