Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of including intensive care medical practitioners in the Immigration Rules Appendix K: Shortage Occupation List.

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) advises the Government on changes to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). The MAC has determined that a number of doctors, including various posts in emergency medicine and consultants specialising in clinical radiology, are in national shortage and they appear on the published SOL in Appendix K of the Immigration Rules.

The SOL sits under Tier 2, our main immigration route for non-EEA workers. Applications for jobs on the SOL receive the highest priority – and the highest number of points – when allocating a Tier 2 (General) place.

The SOL is kept under regular review, with the most recent changes made to it last April.