Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the oral answer by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 27 March (HL Deb, col 355), whether they intend to address the need for people from overseas with the requisite digital technology skills to be able to come to work in the UK during the Brexit negotiation process; if not, what assessment they have made of the impact of failing to address that need in the short-term on the UK economy; and if so, what steps they are taking to support access to the skills required in that sector.

We seek to guarantee the rights of EU citizens who are already living in Britain, and the rights of British nationals in other member states as early as we can. This remains an early priority for the forthcoming negotiations. We will control immigration so that we continue to attract the brightest and the best to work or study in Britain, but manage the process properly so that our immigration system serves the national interest. As part of that it is important that we understand the impacts of different options on different sectors of the economy and the labour market. We are taking action across the entire education and training pipeline to ensure we have the digital skills to maintain our world leading digital economy.