Written question asked by John McDonnell (Labour) on Monday, 20 October 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 22 October 2025. It was answered by Mike Tapp (Labour) on Monday, 27 October 2025 on behalf of the Home Office.
Visas: Skilled Workers
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of the changes to income thresholds in the Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules, HC 997, published on 1 July 2025, on the number of people employed on Skilled Worker Visas who no longer have leave to remain.
- Answer
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On 12 May, we published our Immigration White Paper, outlining our future approach to legal migration routes. We made Immigration Rules changes bringing the first of these reforms into effect. The 22 July changes included raising the skills threshold to RQF 6 and a routine uplift of salary going rates.
The salary uplift is based on changes in UK workers’ earnings, as recorded in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings conducted by the Office of National Statistics. This ensures that migrant workers are not used to undercut UK workers and are not exploited by being underpaid, which would create downward pressure on wages.
Recent salary changes only affect those already in the Skilled Worker route when they next make an application to change employment, extend their stay, or settle. Sponsors are not required to increase salary in line with the new salary requirements for the duration of a worker’s existing permission. The changes only apply when they next make an application to change employment or extend their stay. This is in line with normal practice.
Those who have been in the route since before 4 April 2024 continue to be subject to lower overall salary requirements.
On 2 July we asked the Migration Advisory Committee to advise on future salary requirements for Skilled Worker visas and the Temporary Shortage List.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 83227
- Session
- 2024-26
- Related items
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Restoring Control over the Immigration System
Monday, 12 May 2025
Command papers
House of Commons
House of Lords
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Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules
Tuesday, 1 July 2025
House of Commons papers
House of Commons
House of Lords
- Grouped for answer
- Yes
- Subjects
- Immigration controls Immigration Visas Migrant workers Skilled workers
- Contains statistics
- Yes
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-03-02 10:03:03 +0000
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