Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Skilled Worker visa salary threshold on the ability of veterinary practices to recruit staff; and what appeals process is available where salary thresholds do not reflect local pay levels.

Practices sponsoring veterinarians for Skilled Worker applications post 22^nd July 2025 will need to offer a salary of at least £49,500 to meet the requirements.

There are salary discounts available for “New entrants” at the start of their careers. If they meet any of these requirements then instead of the £49,500 salary requirement vets could qualify with a minimum pay of £34,600.

A technical annex (www.gov.uk/government/publications/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-technical-annex) was published alongside the Immigration White Paper setting out the impact of some of the key policy changes.

The national salary thresholds are set at the median levels according to the Office for National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and are in place to ensure that resident workers’ wages should not be undercut and also to protect overseas workers from being exploited as low-cost labour.

On 2 July we asked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to advise on future salary requirements for Skilled Worker visas.