PCG welcomes points-based migration paper

The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) has welcomed the Governmentís Command Paper on a points-based system for managed migration, published today. The publication follows a consultation phase, lasting several months, to which PCG contributed.

PCGís chairman Simon Juden said, ìFor some years we have been arguing that the UK boasts a substantial base of highly skilled workers and that companies should not be able to hire workers from overseas except where there is a genuine skills gap in the UK. Allowing the easy exploitation of workers from overseas might make for short-term cost savings, but is not conducive to developing the skills of knowledge workers in the UK. This would be disastrous for the countryís long-term prospects in an ever-more competitive world economy.

ìWe are pleased to see the Government acknowledge that migration should be managed primarily on the basis of economic need,î Dr Juden continued, ìand that the system announced today will be able to respond to changing economic circumstances.î

There are four key elements in todayís paper that PCG believes will improve the system and prevent the current abuses:

* The obligation on companies to advertise all vacancies in one place will facilitate monitoring of the whole system, so that it is possible to ascertain whether and when companies really are unable to fill vacancies in the UK. This level of transparency has been a key demand of PCGís for some time.

* PCG has worked with the Government for several years to combat the abuse of the existing work permits system, particularly the Intra-Company Transfer route. Todayís Command Paper states that ICTs will from now on be subject to the same controls as Tier 2. While some of the details of this, such as the tests applied to non-shortage occupations, are not yet clear, PCG believes that this sensible development will prevent a continuation of the current and uncontrolled abuse of ICTs.

- The continuation of the Resident Labour Market Test, which ensures that work permits are not issued for jobs that can be filled by workers already in the UK, is welcomed.

- In its response to last yearís consultation, PCG argued for direct continuity between the existing Sector Skills Councils and the new Skills Advisory Body. PCG is therefore pleased that the new body will draw on existing expertise when drawing up lists of shortage occupation lists.

PCGís involvement with Work Permits UK and the skills sector panel led to IT occupations being removed from the skills shortages list in 2002.