Cap on Immigrant Workers

The Government has announced that it intends to enter into consultation to introduce a limit on the number of migrants from outside the Europe Union who can work in the United Kingdom. An interim limit will be introduced to avoid a rush of applications before the limit is set, and to ensure that the number of work visas issued stays below 2009 levels. This is part of a wider Government policy to reduce annual immigration from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands. In addition to a 12-week consultation with business on how a limit can be introduced, the Government will ask the Migration Advisory Committee, the Government’s independent adviser on migration issues, to consider the level at which the limit should be set, given its potential social and economic impact. The Government intends to put in place the permanent limits on non-EU economic migration routes by 1 April 2011. The interim limits will take effect from 19 July 2010.