Lords Committee Criticises The Home Office Over “Significant Changes To Immigration Policy”

In its 33rd Report of Session 24-25, the cross-party House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has once again expressed concern about the lack of information provided by the Home Office in support of measures which make significant changes in immigration policy.

The report comes after the Committee considered the department’s latest Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (HC 977) – the “Statement”.

First, the Statement implements changes to the Skilled Worker visa route by tightening the conditions for granting such visas and removing the social care sector from the list of occupations that can recruit migrant workers. This will have a wide impact, affecting around 180 occupations.

The report highlights the lack of any consultation exercise in advance of these changes and that no impact assessment (IA) has been carried out. The lack of an IA is particularly regrettable given the changes are likely to have significant economic effects.

Its absence suggests that the measures in the Statement were formed before these effects had been fully analysed and understood. Moreover, the lack of an IA makes it impossible for the Committee to fulfil its duty to scrutinise the Statement. The Home Office accepted that its approach “should not be common practice”. The Committee has called on the department to publish the IA by the end of the current Parliamentary summer recess.

Second, the Statement closes two schemes that assisted Afghans who supported UK operations and aims in Afghanistan to resettle in the UK. A submission to the Committee argued that this would mean “permanently abandoning” people who need support, particularly in the context of information about a data leak in February 2022 revealed by the recent lifting of a superinjunction. In response, the Home Office told the Committee that the majority of those who are eligible had already applied under the schemes, and that 95% of current applications are being found to be ineligible.

The report draws the Statement to the special attention of the House on the ground that the explanatory material laid in support provides insufficient information to gain a clear understanding about the instrument’s policy objective and intended implementation.

Lord Watson of Invergowrie, Chair of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, said:
“It is a point we have made repeatedly, particularly to the Home Office, that whenever the Government lays legislation which potentially has significant real world consequences, it must provide information on the impact. Despite acknowledging this to be correct practice, the Home Office has again failed to provide adequate supporting information on the effect of these changes.

“The restrictions on Skilled Worker visas are expected to lead to a drop of 40% in the grant of these visas. The effects on the care sector may be particularly acute. It is inexplicable that information on the impact of this was not included in the Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the Statement.”

“We are severely hampered in fulfilling our parliamentary scrutiny role as a Committee, on behalf of the House of Lords, when we are not given the level of detail necessary to enable effective scrutiny of secondary legislation and we will continue to highlight examples where departments fall short of this obligation.”

“The Minister has told us that an Impact Assessment will be published as soon as possible. We have called on it to be published before the end of the Parliamentary summer recess and we will not hesitate to ask the Minister for an explanation if our calls are ignored.”