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Immigration (Work Permits)

I can give my right hon. Friend that assurance, and I agree with him completely. We should look at skills in the round, and if there are particular sectors where there are skills shortages, for example, south Asian chefs—I cite that example because our hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) raised it—that is the area where we need to develop the skills capacity to deal with it. In his role in developing skills in the economy over recent years, my right hon. Friend made a major contribution in that regard. It is precisely because that work has been done that we can, in the document published today, talk about a skills advisory body based on that knowledge, which enables us to take it forward. That is the central issue that we must address, as we will do. It is important that we monitor it throughout because the way in which the skills advisory bodies will work is based on the sector skills councils, each of which has an analysis for its sector of the strengths and weaknesses of labour supply in its part of the economy. That will inform the judgments that are made about migration into the UK and points to be allocated on that basis.