Will Forster
Main Page: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)Department Debates - View all Will Forster's debates with the Home Office
Migration: Settlement Pathway
Will Forster Excerpts(1 day, 6 hours ago)
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Shabana Mahmood
The Health Secretary and his Department are always reviewing and considering the arrangements. We need to ensure that we have a workforce capable of sustaining the national health service. We have an ageing population, which brings its own specific challenges. We are not talking about preventing people from working in our national health service; it is about the pathway to settlement. It is about extending the pathway from five to 10 years, and then thinking about the rules we need to bring that number down from 10 and closer to five years, or that might increase it instead. In that spirit, I encourage my hon. Friend to engage with the detail, and I would be happy to talk to her offline.
Mr Will Forster (Woking) (LD)
The Home Secretary announced a consultation on a five-year pathway to settlement for those who work in the public sector to recognise the particularly valuable role they play in society. Will she please put that to the vote, so that MPs can ensure that those who work in organisations that are fundamental to the public sector—such as those who work in hospices, like the amazing Woking & Sam Beare hospice in my constituency—are always included in the five-year pathway?
Shabana Mahmood
All the measures will be taken through in the usual way.