Oral Answers to Questions

David Evennett Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)]

2. What recent progress she has made on reform of the immigration system.

[Mr David Evennett (Bexleyheath and Crayford) (Con)]

10. What recent progress she has made on reform of the immigration system.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

12. What recent progress she has made on reform of the immigration system.

--- Later in debate ---

[Damian Green]

My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point, because this is what we are seeking to achieve under our annual limit: we want to ensure not only that the skills that may not be available at the moment in this country are made available, but that jobs are also available for British workers. I commend to him the research published by the Home Office last week showing that 29% of those who came in under the tier 1 route—the route meant for the most highly skilled: the people who are so highly skilled that they do not even need a job offer—were employed in low-skilled roles. That tells me that the points-based system has not been working as well as it should have been.

[Mr Evennett]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s actions to date on this matter, but in order to bring net migration down to a sustainable level a robust limit on non-EU economic migration is vital. Will he update us on what progress he has made on dealing with other routes into the UK, for example, bogus colleges and illegal transportation?

[Damian Green]

I agree with my hon. Friend that it is not just the economic routes we are looking at—as I have said, we are examining other routes. We are, of course, committed to attracting the brightest and best students to the UK, and we welcome legitimate students coming here to study legitimate courses, but there has been and still is significant abuse of the student route. Part of our summer crackdown on illegal immigration has been aimed at bogus colleges. We have suspended the licences of another five bogus colleges in the past three months, and I am happy to assure him and the House that we will continue to crack down as hard as possible on those using the student route to promote illegal immigration.