Oral Answers to Questions

Patricia Gibson Excerpts

Monday 22nd May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The Home Secretary said that she did not want to be repetitive. That goes all around the Chamber.

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

3. What assessment she has made of the effect of her Department's immigration policies on labour shortages in Scotland.

[The Minister for Immigration (Robert Jenrick)]

The points-based system serves the whole United Kingdom, and as noted in the Migration Advisory Committee annual report, immigration policy cannot be a complete solution to population movements within the United Kingdom, or to labour shortages. The Scottish Government have policy levers to address those issues more effectively.

[Patricia Gibson]

The Scottish Government have repeatedly raised the issue, I have secured a debate on it, and my SNP colleagues have raised it over and over again: labour shortages are posing huge challenges for Scotland right now. The Scottish Government proposed a rural immigration pilot—a proposal welcomed by one of the Home Secretary’s predecessors, the right hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid). Why will the UK Government not engage with the Scottish Government on that important issue, given that the Scottish Government have no powers in that area?

[Robert Jenrick]

We believe strongly that the UK is better served by a single, national immigration service, and there is no material difference between unemployment or economic inactivity rates in Scotland versus the rest of the United Kingdom. The first port of call for vacancies should always be the domestic workforce. That is why my right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary has brought forward a wide package of measures across the whole country, to help more people into the workforce. It is not right that we always reach for the lever of immigration to solve those challenges.