Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to encourage an increase in migration to the UK from Australia to the levels of such migration prior to 2008.

We value our close links with Australia and are committed to further strengthening our ties. Across all visa categories, total visas issued to Australian nationals grew by 10% in the year ending September 2015.

However, the Government is committed to reducing net migration to sustainable levels. We have capped the level of skilled economic migration from outside the EU, and have asked the Migration Advisory Committee to advise on restricting Tier 2 of the Points Based System for immigration to genuine skills shortages and highly specialist experts to ensure that we only grant visas to those who have the skills we really need in our economy. We have no plans to introduce specific targets for Australian migration to the UK.