Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 18261, if she will make an assessment of the net contribution to the UK economy made by immigration from Australia, Canada and New Zealand in the last five years before proceeding with her Department's proposals to restrict access to Tier 2 visas for Australian and New Zealand citizens.

There are no plans to introduce Tier 2 restrictions specifically aimed at Australian, New Zealand and/or Canadian citizens.

The Government has commissioned the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to advise on restricting Tier 2 to genuine skills shortages and jobs which require highly-specialised experts, but with sufficient flexibility to include high value roles and key public service workers. The MAC is looking at selection criteria such as, but not limited to, salaries, particular attributes, economic need and skills level. The Government has asked the MAC to consider the economic impact of potential changes.

The MAC is still finalising its report and we do not yet know what its findings and recommendations will be. We await the report with interest and will consider the potential economic impacts carefully before making any significant changes to the Tier 2 route.