§ Mr. John Ellisasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement about the policy concerning the issue of work permits for overseas nationals, and any changes he intends to make.
§ Mr. John Grant:While I do not propose to change the basic conditions of the work permit scheme I want to take this opportunity to say something about them.
The present scheme has, since its inception in 1973, been intended to ensure that jobs are available to workers from overseas only if the work demands a professional qualificaion or a skill obtained by substantial training and employment experience, or is specialised work calling for particular knowledge and abilities usually acquired by employment experience; and only if the employment of an overseas worker is necessary.
For work which does not meet the occupational ability standards, employers are expected to recruit, and where necessary train, indigenous workers or workers from overseas who have become settled here. For work which does satisfy the occupational requirements, there must also be a genuine need which an overseas worker can meet; and it has to be shown that the overseas worker for whom an application is made has the appropriate professional qualifications, skill or specialised knowledge and ability demanded.
The unemployment situation which led to the adoption of these conditions has unhappily worsened and the standards I have described must be very firmly applied in respect of both the job and the overseas worker.
In its observations in July this year on the First Report of the Select Committee on Race Relations and Immigration 1977–78, which recommended that 180W permits should be given only in exceptional circumstances, the Government said that in each case a permit was issued only after careful consideration of all the relevant circumstances. One of the most important of these is the availability of suitable workers here for the job in question. It has always been a basic condition for the issue of a permit that there is no such worker available and that the employer has made adequate efforts to find one. I am determined that no employment opportunities should be lost for workers here and that this condition, too, should very clearly be met.
I should add that the other conditions of the scheme which have to be satisfied are that the application is made by the employer himself, for a named worker for a specific job ; that the worker is aged between 18 and 54 years, except for resident domestic workers who must be not less than 20 years of age ; and that the wages and conditions of employment offered are not less favourable than those prevailing in the area for similar work.