Transparency data

Migration Advisory Committee minutes, 22 July 2022

Updated 6 July 2023

Migration Advisory Committee
2nd Floor, Peel Building NE
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Minutes of the 153rd meeting of the Migration Advisory Committee

Friday 22 July 2022 13:00pm to 15:30pm.

Video / Telephone conference

Attending

• Professor Brian Bell
• Professor Dina Kiwan
• Professor Sergi Pardos-Prado
• Madeleine Sumption
• Della Mcvay
• Toby Nutley
• MAC Secretariat

Apologies

Professor Jo Swaffield

Agenda Item 1 – Welcome and introductions

1. Brian Bell opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees.

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 publication of the 2nd part of the FBIS strategy, the departments renewed focus on digitisation and the status of the write-round process relating to commissioning letter for the MAC’s upcoming review of the SOL.

3. Toby Nutley updated the committee on staffing changes within the secretariat and confirmed that the Home Secretary has agreed to recruit a 6th committee member. The final version of a report by Revealing Reality has been published and a recent cross-Whitehall stakeholder engagement event focused largely on April’s social care report.

4. Brian Bell gave a summary of his recent visit to the Cabinet Office.

Agenda item 3 – SOL Commission timings and risks

5. The secretariat presented an outline of the high-level timelines and issues to be resolved in advance of the next SOL commission. The committee discussed the scope of the commission, the secretariat’s approach to SOC2020 mapping, going rate discounts for occupations on the SOL, the availability of relevant data and communication with stakeholders.

Agenda item 4 – SOL methodology paper

6. The secretariat presented a draft of the SOL methodology review and updated on plans to publish the review. The committee agreed to provide detailed comments via correspondence.

Agenda item 5 – salary threshold measurement

7. The secretariat led a discussion around uprating salary thresholds, the measures of pay used to calculate them and the inclusion of pay scale occupations in the calculation. The committee agreed that uprating remains the correct approach and the current measure of pay is appropriate.

Agenda item 6 – Annual Report: qualitative research

8. The secretariat shared proposals for the qualitative research that will support the Annual Report, asking the committee to comment on the suitability of the suggested approach of organisational deep dives and working with Revealing Reality. The committee broadly agreed with the proposed approach.

Agenda item 7 – Annual Report: Indeed draft

9. The secretariat shared a skeleton for the Indeed research paper and outlined the questions and themes that will be used to explore the data. The committee were happy with the proposed cross-country analysis and agreed to provide further comments via correspondence.

Agenda item 8 – Annual Report: labour market and immigration

10. The secretariat shared a skeleton outlining the intended structure and planned analysis for the labour market and immigration section of the Annual Report, asking for feedback on proposed comparisons between sectors with high / medium / low shares of EU born workers.

Agenda item 9 – Annual Report: exploitation

11. The secretariat presented an outline of the exploitation chapter of the annual report, asking for feedback on scope and the inclusion of other policy trade-offs. The committee agreed that clearly defining exploitation would help shape the scope of the chapter moving forward.

Agenda item 10 – AOB

12. Toby asked for committee members’ comments on the draft call for evidence questionnaire via correspondence and the secretariat gave an update on the target publication date for the Annual Report.