MPs’ concern over lax controls on IT migrants

The lack of control over the tens of thousands of overseas IT workers entering the UK is a concern, particularly as UK residents with IT skills are still struggling to find work, an influential panel of MPs announced.

Taking aim at intra-company transfers, which have imported two thirds of the UK’s IT migrants, the Public Accounts Committee said the ICT route was potentially “displacing” domestic IT workers.

ICTs, which allow multinationals to transfer their workers to the UK, are not covered by the immigration cap and have “much more limited” checks than the other work routes into the country require, PAC said.

Although salary thresholds were recently set on ICTs to “better protect” resident workers, they include living allowances and therefore do “not accurately reflect” what the worker is actually paid.

PAC Chair Margaret Hodge reflected that, due to such circumstances, “some companies may use cheaper workers from outside the European Economic Area rather than UK resident workers.”

But it wasn’t just the points-based immigration approach and system that were criticised; albeit acknowledged as an improvement on the previous 39 types of work visas it replaced.

Ms Hodge added: “[The Borders]Agency has not got a grip on making sure that migrant workers whose visas have expired actually leave the UK.

“It estimates that 181,000 such workers are staying on without permission – but it can’t even verify the figures, and does not try to enforce the employer’s duty to ensure that the people they bring in leave when they are required to do so.”

Its officials have also not exercised proper checks on sponsoring employers (only one in five were visited when applying for licences), and does not know how many existing sponsors have been inspected.

And even if it wanted to take “a robust risk-based approach” to sponsoring employers, the agency couldn’t because it lacks the information required, the MPs found.

They concluded: “The fundamental point is that the [Borders] Agency lacks the management information needed to manage migrant numbers and ensure that the rules are complied with.

“It assures us that its planned new immigration casework system will provide the required information. We will be looking for improved performance once the new system is fully up and running, from 2013."