§ Mr. Carmichael:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what procedure there is for verifying that there are no qualified or experienced workers available when work permits are issued to foreign seafarers. [140670]
§ Beverley Hughes:The usual requirement is that the employer must demonstrate that they have been unable to fill the vacancy with a suitably qualified worker from the resident labour force. Employers will normally be required to provide evidence that they have advertised the post in an appropriate medium and the grounds on which they considered resident workers who applied for the post to be unsuitable. These requirements are waived only in respect of intra-corporate transfers, board level posts, inward investment posts and those occupations where Work Permits (UK) has established, on the basis of independent labour market information, that there is an acute shortage of suitably qualified resident workers. The latter do not include seafarers.