Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-11-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2015 to Question 15161, whether native speaker language fluency is classified as a skill for the purposes of the work visa system; and how the work visa system can assist a UK business seeking a person with Russian native speaker language fluency.
James Brokenshire
Tier 2 of the Points Based System for immigration – the skilled work route – has been reserved for graduate occupations since 2011. Fluency in a foreign language does not increase the skill level of the occupation. UK businesses wishing to employee a Russian speaker may do so under Tier 2 if the position is graduate level and other Tier 2 criteria, including an appropriate salary and an ability to speak English, are met. Unless the role is on the shortage occupation list, they will need first to have tested the resident labour market to ensure there is no suitably qualified resident worker available.
The Government has commissioned the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to advise on restricting Tier 2 to genuine skills shortages and jobs which require highly-specialised experts, but with sufficient flexibility to include high value roles and key public service workers. The MAC is looking at selection criteria such as, but not limited to, salaries, particular attributes, economic need and skills level. The MAC is not due to report until December and we do not yet know what its findings and recommendations will be. We await the report with interest and will consider it carefully before making any significant changes to the Tier 2 route.
