Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions his Department has had with representatives from the (a) hospitality sector, (b) agriculture sector and (c) health sector on the immigration White Paper.
The Government published the White Paper ;The UK’s future skills-based immigration system (Cm 9722) on 19 December 2018. The White Paper is the start of a new conversation and we have launched a year-long engagement programme to take the views of stakeholders across the UK to hear their priorities, concerns and ideas before policies and processes are finalised and the new system comes into force from January 2021. We are determined to ensure that the future system is efficient and able to respond to users’ needs.
We have already delivered around 30 events reaching well over 500 stakeholders, for example, business and employer representatives, including the Confederation of Business Industry, the Federation of Small Businesses, as well as those from the health and social care sector, the hospitality industry and the construction and automotive industries. We are holding discussions with sectors and also across the UK, and have already held events in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with events in Wales being scheduled for April This is in addition to our continued engagement and negotiations with the EU and international partners.
As part of this engagement, we have established a range of advisory groups to enable detailed discussions with private, public and voluntary sector employers and industry representatives. Membership details of these groups will be published on gov.uk shortly.