Charlotte Leslie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charlotte Leslie on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure the accuracy of labour shortages reported by employers before adding professions to the occupational shortage list.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) reviews the Shortage Occupation List when commissioned to do so by the Government.

The MAC is an independent advisory body consisting of expert labour market economists. It has a clear, published methodology for assessing whether occupations are skilled, in shortage, and whether it is sensible to address those shortages in part through migration, based on a variety of indicators and using national “top down” data as well as “bottom up” evidence from employers.

The MAC has carried out two full reviews and three partial reviews of the Shortage Occupation List since May 2010. Further information about the MAC’s methodology and the reviews it has carried out are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/migration-advisory-committee

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