IT is lead user of migrant work permits

British employers in need of IT expertise last year imported non-European workers into the UK at twice the rate of all other types of professional skills combined.

Despite the downturn creating an ample supply of settled UK IT staff, almost 30,000 computer workers from outside of the European Union were brought to the country in 2008.

In fact, by using intra-company transfers (ICTs), which let UK employers transfer their overseas staff to their UK office, 29, 240 foreign IT workers were successfully imported.

This is more than double the number - 14,255 - of staff who entered the UK on ICTs last year to work in all the other professional service sectors, including telecoms, combined.

The official figures also show that nearly six times as many workers came to the UK on ICT permits to work in IT than the combined total of staff who arrived for finance and legal work.

They evidence that while the ICT route may be being pursued correctly by some employers, it is being exploited in the IT sector, said the Association of Professional Staffing Companies.

Intra-company transfers were designed to let employers transfer senior staff, with specialist skills and company specific knowledge, to the UK who would be difficult to recruit in the UK.

But the association, which obtained the figures under freedom of information laws, said most of the non-EU IT workers entering the UK were from India, and worked at software houses.

It said any employer that wants to transfer permanent or contract staff from their overseas offices should be legally required to declare the vacancies to the UK labour market first.

Under current ICT rules, employers can effectively bypass UK job-seekers, who command higher pay than their overseas counterparts, as they have no obligation to advertise the roles.

The government's Migration Advisory Committee turned down an opportunity to close this "loophole" earlier this month, which was 'disappointing', APSCo said.

But for coming at a time of joblessness among British IT graduates, the group reserved its strongest veto for the MAC's proposal to create a new ICT scheme for non-EU graduates.

Unlike other non-EU workers who must be employed at the company for a year before they can be transferred, graduates would be eligible for an ICT from the third month of work.

Graduate secondments can be useful, but the proposal could see an influx of foreign IT graduates into the UK, just at a time when domestic IT graduates are struggling, APSCo said.

Chief executive Ann Swain said: "The irony is that while graduate level IT jobs are being outsourced to India it is now being proposed that it should be easier for Indian IT graduates to work in the UK at a time when there are few if any skill shortages at that level."

She added: "Most of the non-EU IT workers coming to the UK are working for Indian software companies. India produces enormous numbers of IT graduates every year, so there is a real concern many could head to the UK on intra-company work permits if this proposal is adopted."

Editor's note: Further reading:  Intra-Company Transfers & Work Permit updates