Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the single new entrant discount will be for those studying, recently graduated or in professional training.
Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This question relates to announced changes to work visa salary thresholds in the Budget:
6.94 Implementing Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recommendations on visa salary requirements – The government is implementing MAC recommendations on visa salary requirements from spring 2027. These comprise:
reducing occupation-specific minimum salary thresholds from the median to the 25th percentile of wages; uprating the general threshold based on 2026 wage data;
annually updating salary thresholds using the latest ONS wage inflation data (ASHE);
levelling new entrant discounts into a single figure for those studying, recently graduated, or in professional training;
removing the PhD discount.
These changes were based on the MAC’s December 2025 report on salaries www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-salary-requirements, which stated:
“We recommend that occupation-specific thresholds for the SW route are set at a level which reduces the risk of undercutting domestic workers, without preventing certain jobs within occupations from using the system and inadvertently prioritising lower paid workers. Given this, we argue that the median is too high a level for occupational thresholds. We echo the recommendation we have made several times in the past that the 25th percentile of occupational earnings is adequate for this purpose. A reduction in the occupation-specific thresholds does not necessarily mean liberalising overall skilled work migration or increasing net migration, because the impact of these thresholds depends on the level of the general threshold.”
6.95 Extending visa curtailment to six months – The government will allow the highest skilled workers to access a visa curtailment period of up to six months. This will give highly skilled workers longer to find a new job, with the duration varying depending on how long they have worked in their previous, highly-paid job, with implementation in 2027.
Further details about the changes, and impacts, announced in Budget 2026 will be shared in due course.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in which month each year salary thresholds will be updated using ASHE data; and whether thresholds could fall if wages fall.
Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Salary thresholds are updated as soon as reasonably practical, this is usually in the spring Immigration Rules changes.
As the requirements are based on Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data then requirements could fall if the trend for all workers is downward.
The Government considers it is right that salary requirements for Skilled Workers should reflect changes in wider UK salaries.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what measures of labour market outcomes will be used to decide whether a university has strong labour market outcomes; and how often eligibility will be reviewed.
Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government has announced its plans to increase the duration of the Graduate visa to two years for graduates from high compliance universities where there are strong labour market outcomes. Further details, including any transitional arrangements, will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria will define a high-compliance university for the two-year Graduate visa; and how many institutions she expects to qualify.
Answered by Jo White - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government has announced its plans to increase the duration of the Graduate visa to two years for graduates from high compliance universities where there are strong labour market outcomes. Further details, including any transitional arrangements, will be announced in due course.