Work Permits (Hansard, 31 January 1991)

§ Mr. Howard

In May 1989 the Employment Department published a consultation paper as part of a deregulation review of the work permit scheme. This contained proposals to make the scheme more relevant to changed economic and labour market conditions and to make it more responsive to employers' needs. Those proposals have met with overwhelming support.

The changes I will be making will considerably reduce the formalities for employers who need to bring to the United Kingdom essential staff who are subject to work permit requirements, whilst at the same time maintaining firm immigration control with no relaxation of the conditions required by the immigration rules. Permits will continue to be generally restricted to posts requiring highly qualified and skilled people, where there is no suitable United Kingdom or EC national available and will be for strictly limited duration, related to the essential needs of the employer. Only in exceptional circumstances will permits be given for the four-year period which can qualify an overseas national to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom.

The main changes to the scheme, which will come into effect as soon as practicable, are as follows:

(i) The evidence required to support an application will be reduced to the necessary minimum. For example, employers will no longer be required to advertise vacancies in the United Kingdom and EC if they can demonstrate that such advertisement would have been inappropriate or unproductive for the post in question.
(ii) Procedures will be simplified to reduce delays and uncertainty when both the Employment Department and the Home Office need to be involved. In future employers will send all applications to the same point of contact in the Employment Department for initial consideration.
(iii) Permits will no longer be resticted to those overseas nationals who have gained their qualifications and experience outside the United Kingdom. It will however remain the case that those admitted as students or for other reasons will not normally be permited to change to employment.

There are a number of other more detailed changes which will simplify the application process for work permits. Full details will be given to those wishing to apply, when revised guidance notes are issued.

The new arrangements will enable the Employment Department to provide a faster, better service taking greater account of the needs of business and resulting in considerable administrative savings for most employers who need to apply for permits. I intend also to recover the costs to the taxpayer of administering the scheme by introducing a service charge for work permit applications. Legislative proposals to allow this will be put forward when a suitable opportunity becomes available.