Correspondence

The Home Secretary's commissioning letter to the chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, on the ICT immigration route (accessible version)

Published 7 October 2020

Professor Brian Bell
Migration Advisory Committee
2nd Floor Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

28 September 2020

Dear Brian

Commission to the Migration Advisory Committee

I remain very grateful to you and the other members of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) for the very important work that you undertake and for the high-quality analysis that you produce.

I look forward to receiving your advice on the composition of the Shortage Occupation Lists, which I know you are aiming to complete by the end of September. I understand, too, that production of your new-style enhanced annual report is well underway and that you intend to deliver it by the end of the year. I shall be interested to see its content.

The purpose of this letter is to commission the MAC to undertake a study of the Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) immigration route. As you know, the ICT route exists alongside the main Tier 2 (General) route for skilled workers in the current immigration system. It is designed to enable employers in the UK to move existing senior employees and specialists, who have been employed by the company for at least 12 months, easily from overseas offices to roles in the United Kingdom. The ICT route has a different (and higher) salary threshold to the main Tier 2 route and different requirements, not least the absence of any relating to English language. It also contains a sub-category for graduate trainees.

It is our intention that the ICT route should sit alongside the new skilled worker route in the new points-based immigration system that we are launching in January and that the terms of the ICT route should, initially, be the same as now. However, it is several years since the MAC last looked at the ICT route and I would be grateful if you could consider the operation and effectiveness of that route. In particular, it would be helpful to have the MAC’s advice on:

• the salary threshold for entry to the ICT route
• what elements, if any, beyond base salary should count towards meeting the salary requirement
• whether, as now, different arrangements should apply to the very highly paid
• what the skills threshold for the route should be
• the conditions of the route, in particular those where it differs from the main Tier 2 (General)/Skilled Worker route

In considering these points, the Committee is asked to have regard to the commitments that the UK has taken in respect of intra-company transferees in the Mode 4 provisions of free trade agreements, and the need to ensure that those commitments are fully implemented under our domestic rules.

Alongside ICTs, the Home Office is seeking to expand its mobility offer to enable overseas businesses to send teams of workers to establish a branch/subsidiary (currently we can only admit a single worker for this purpose) or to undertake a secondment in relation to a high-value contract for goods or services. We would be grateful for the MAC’s advice on where we should set any criteria on the eligibility of workers (e.g. skill and salary thresholds) and the sending organisations (e.g. size of company, value of investment or contract, potential job creation etc.).

I should be grateful if the MAC could report by the end of October 2021.

Rt Hon Priti Patel MP

Home Secretary