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Points-based Migration System

Today I am publishing the Government's response to the recent consultation on a new points-based system for managed migration. This is being published as ‘A Points-Based System: Making Migration Work for Britain' (Cm 6741) and copies are available in the House Library. I am very pleased to be able to publish our detailed policies for a new managed migration system. These are a result of an intensive consultation process involving face to face contact with 1200 stakeholders as well as 517 written responses. As the document I am publishing today says, we have been able to adopt a number of the very constructive suggestions made during the consultation process. The UK needs a world-class migration system to attract the brightest and best from across the world while being robust against attempted abuse. This new system will give employers and educational institutions a stronger role in the managed migration system, and will introduce a more transparent and objective method of points-based structured decision making. Applicants will be able to self-assess online to check whether they have enough points to make an application before spending time and money on making a formal application. The FiveYear Strategy on Immigration and Asylum (Controlling our Borders: Making migration work for Britain) published in February 2005 said that we would be phasing out existing low-skilled migration routes. I can announce today that the remaining food processing quota of the Sectors Based Scheme, which was cut in July 2005 to 3,500, will be terminated at the end of this year, and the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme will be phased out by the end of 2010. This is in response to the large numbers of nationals from the 10 countries which joined the EU in May 2004 who have registered to work in these sectors, and follows the termination of the hospitality quota under the Sectors Based Scheme in July 2005. The policies published today are a significant step in the Government's aim to achieve greater public confidence in the immigration system, and will ensure that managed migration continues to benefit the UK.