Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of data from the Migration Advisory Committee report entitled The Fiscal of Immigration, December 2025, which found the actual savings from extending the settlement qualifying period may be approximately £600 million.
Answered by Mike Tapp
The MAC’s December 2025 report concluded that the net fiscal contribution of migrant workers declines after settlement. Their report did not provide the estimated savings from implementing an earned settlement model.
The consultation for the earned settlement model, as proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, was open to the public between 20 November 2025 and 12 February 2026.
We are now reviewing and analysing all responses received. This analysis will help inform the development of the final earned settlement model, including consideration of any transitional measures for those already on a pathway to settlement.
Once the final model has been decided, the Government will communicate the outcome publicly. As with all significant policy changes, the proposals will be subject to both economic and equality impact assessments.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 17 March 2026 to Question 119436 on Overseas Students: Sudan, if she will take steps to review the decision on Chevening scholarship recipients.
Answered by Mike Tapp
By year ending September 2025, asylum claims along the affected routes by nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan had risen to over 470% of their 2021 level. The visa brake operates on a nationality-based approach on the Student visa route for Sudan and three other nationalities. This is in order to safeguard the fairness, credibility and sustainability of the immigration system as a whole, and so we are unable provide an exception to individuals who are resident in third countries.
While the terms and conditions of the Chevening Scholarship require scholars to return home for at least two years following the completion of courses, there have been instances of asylum claims made by Chevening scholars for each of the affected nationalities in recent years. Given this continued asylum risk, introducing exceptions from the visa brakes for Chevening scholars of these nationalities would be unfair
The brake will be kept under regular review. The visa brake is not intended to be permanent, but it will only be released once the government considers it appropriate to do so.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the visa brake on applicants who have been long-term residents in third countries.
Answered by Mike Tapp
By year ending September 2025, asylum claims along the affected routes by nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan had risen to over 470% of their 2021 level. The visa brake operates on a nationality-based approach on the Student visa route for Sudan and three other nationalities. This is in order to safeguard the fairness, credibility and sustainability of the immigration system as a whole, and so we are unable provide an exception to individuals who are resident in third countries.
While the terms and conditions of the Chevening Scholarship require scholars to return home for at least two years following the completion of courses, there have been instances of asylum claims made by Chevening scholars for each of the affected nationalities in recent years. Given this continued asylum risk, introducing exceptions from the visa brakes for Chevening scholars of these nationalities would be unfair
The brake will be kept under regular review. The visa brake is not intended to be permanent, but it will only be released once the government considers it appropriate to do so.
Asked by: Abtisam Mohamed (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled Visa brake imposed on 4 countries after widespread visa abuse, published on 4 March 2026, what steps she is taking to improve data sharing, including asylum application data, with sponsors.
Answered by Mike Tapp
The Home Office works closely with sponsors and sector bodies to support compliance with sponsorship duties and the integrity of the immigration system.
The Home Office regularly shares information with sponsors, including data to support monitoring of visa refusal rates, and in 2025 introduced new mechanisms to enhance refusal data sharing. Sponsors must report to the Home Office where a student does not enrol, or has sponsorship withdrawn after enrolment, and therefore already has access to that information.
We continue to explore opportunities to strengthen data sharing in line with data protection legislation, which includes considering our obligations on handling personal and sensitive data.