Controlling Migration

Baroness Hamwee Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hamwee]

My Lords, I ask the Minister to clarify a couple of issues regarding the paragraph about family members. The Statement says that from next week—although we are told at the end of the Statement that most of the changes will come in next April or soon after that—those who apply for a marriage visa will be required to demonstrate a minimum standard of English. Can she confirm whether that is about providing evidence that the marriage is not a sham marriage, or is that a completely separate matter? Does the Minister agree that English is best learnt in the country where it is spoken?

Secondly, does the Minister agree that there is a need for proper training and skills provision for some of those whom we may find it difficult to identify in future? The Migration Advisory Committee’s report rightly talks about the need for employers to provide training, but it also states:

“Some priority may also be required for limited migration into vital public services such as … social care.”

In the context of the reference to the care assistants who are already here, does the Minister accept that those who work in the social care sector need not just technical but—if I may put it this way—cultural skills as well? I say that having talked at the weekend to a trustee of a care home who tells me that Filipino care assistants have a much better idea of how to look after elderly people than, I am afraid, British people seem to have.