Immigration: a year in review and what to look out for in 2022

The CBI responds to the labour shortages and range of immigration policy changes that have come into effect this year.

Labour shortages

CBI members have been telling us since the summer that labour and skills shortages have been biting across the whole economy – from construction and manufacturing to hospitality, agri-food and retail. To relieve these pressures, the CBI called for temporary access to visas for shortage roles, which the government announced specifically for HGV drivers, poultry workers and pork butchers.

The CBI has lobbied for the Home Office to immediately update the Shortage Occupation List by accepting the Migration Advisory Committee’s September 2020 recommendations and urgently starting a new, comprehensive review. The CBI further reiterated the scale of this issue with Kevin Foster MP, Minister for Safe and Legal Migration, in December, questioning the government’s approach.

In our view the government is very unlikely to relax immigration rules to alleviate labour shortages. The CBI continues to push back on their narrative that business has long used migrant labour instead of investing in domestic wages and skills. Given current politics, we will support members with good practice recommendations to maximise recruitment, retention and the productivity of staff to mitigate the risk of shortages.

Right to work checks

CBI members expressed that the temporary concession to allow right to work checks to be conducted digitally due to COVID-19 restrictions made the process more efficient, while expanding their talent pools. The CBI lobbied on this issue at Ministerial level, and secured an extension to this concession on three occasions until 5 April 2022. New guidance will be issued ahead of 6 April 2022.

The Home Office is conducting a review of the availability of specialist technology to support a permanent system of digital right to work checks, and the CBI will continue calling for this solution as part of making the immigration system digital-by-default.

Sponsorship reform

This has been the first year of the new points-based immigration system, which included several key elements of the CBI’s recommendations after a three-year campaign. These included:

• Lowering the minimum salary threshold down from £30,000 to £25,600
• Greater flexibility on salary thresholds for roles on the Shortage Occupation List
• Removing the cap on skilled workers and scrapping the 28-day ‘resident labour market test’.

The government’s focus in 2021 has been on improving the system to make it simpler to understand and navigate, more efficient to use, more cost-effective and speedier. The key elements include:

• Introducing a Skilled Worker eligibility checking tool to make it easier for employers and individuals to understand if a job is eligible under this visa route
• Establishing a service that can lend support to small and micro businesses
• Commencing a review of sponsorship fees to ensure they remain fair and accessible
• Piloting a new salary checking feature with HMRC to ensure workers are being paid the right amount to prevent abuse of the system.

For 2022, the government plans to further reform the sponsorship process by:

• Transforming the IT infrastructure by building a new online sponsor management system, which will make it easier and more efficient to use
• Delivering a faster end-to-end process for sponsors to reduce the time it takes to recruit
• Simplifying the sponsorship of new workers by re-using information the government already holds as part of the application process
• Streamlining the accessibility and usability of the system by launching a single online dashboard that will make it easier for employers to understand the status of their sponsor licence and actions they need to take.

The full commitments from the Home Office on sponsorship reform can be found in their Summer Roadmap. It is important to note at this stage these are commitments made by the Home Office and it is possible that the nature of these commitments and/or timelines for implementation could change.

New year, new visas

The government has or will launch a series of new visa routes for both 2021 and 2022:

• Graduate Route (2021): Came into force in July, this route enables international students who have completed their university studies to stay in the UK for up to two years to work unsponsored.
• Global Business Mobility Route (2022): This will be a consolidation of all the routes that currently fit under the Intra-Company Transfer route with the view to assist overseas business better establish their presence in the UK by making it easier to move their employees.
• As part of the government’s UK Innovation Strategy, two new visa routes are due to enter into force in the Spring of 2022 – the High Potential Individual route and the Scale-Up route, as well as a revitalisation of the Innovator route.

The CBI will continue to work alongside the government and stakeholders on behalf of members to ensure the new immigration system is fit for purpose – that means one that is responsive to labour market needs and accessible to businesses of all sizes and sectors.

If you would like to get involved with our work on immigration, please contact Yusuf Ali-Hassan.