February 2025 Migration Advisory Committee meeting minutes
Published 14 July 2025
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Migration Advisory Committee
2nd Floor, Peel Building NE
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
184th meeting of Migration Advisory Committee: minutes
Friday 21st February 2025 11:00 – 14:00
In-person conference
Attending
Professor Brian Bell
Professor Dina Kiwan
Professor Sergi Pardos-Prado
Dr Madeleine Sumption
Professor Jo Swaffield
Holly White
MAC Secretariat
Agenda Item 1 – Welcome and introductions
Brian Bell opened the meeting, welcomed the attendees, and introduced new members of the Secretariat.
Agenda item 2 – Home Office, MAC Secretariat and MAC updates
Holly White discussed the new approach to Committee papers, stakeholder engagement, a recent meeting with the OBR on fiscal analysis which was included in the MAC’s annual report, and the housing project that the MAC is due to procure soon.
Brian Bell discussed his meeting with the Chair of the Industrial Strategy Council (ISC) and potential ways the MAC could work with the ISC in future.
Agenda item 3 – IT/engineering review: Narrative Session Overview
A member of the Secretariat gave an overview of the three chapters and the deadlines for the commission.
Brian Bell recapped the new format for narrative structure, including its chapters, and the timelines for the review.
Agenda item 4 – Chapter 1 Narrative Paper: How are the sectors using the immigration system?
The Committee and the Secretariat discussed the narrative summary of Chapter 1 covering visa usage, recruitment, geographical distribution, migrant pay, the Immigration Salary List, compliance, net migration and fiscal modelling for the IT and Engineering Sectors.
Agenda item 5 – Chapter 2 Narrative Paper: Why are the sectors using the immigration system?
The Committee and the Secretariat discussed the roles in shortage, the education pipeline to the sectors, domestic skills supply, and future demand for labour in the Engineering and IT sectors.
The Secretariat discussed additional analysis that could support the chapter.
Agenda item 6 – Chapter 3 Narrative Paper: What are the alternatives to this?
The Secretariat requested the Committee’s views on the narrative regarding the relationship between domestic skills supply and immigration, the landscape and effectiveness of the UK’s current skills and immigration policy with regards to the sectors, and potential recommendations for the review.
Agenda item 7 – Annual Report topics
The Secretariat set out options for the structure of the annual report and potential chapter topics. The Committee discussed the potential topics as well as the MAC’s capacity to work on the topics.
Agenda item 8 – AOB
The Committee raised their recent trip to Scotland to meet stakeholders and found it useful to inform ongoing MAC work.