Tories call for suspension of HSMP rule changes

11 June 2007

The Conservatives have urged the government to suspend controversial changes to the immigration system for highly skilled workers. The race equality watchdog believes the changes breach the law. Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, has written to the Home Office asking it not to apply the reforms retrospectively until the legality of the move has been clarified.

The highly skilled migrants programme (HSMP) was launched to allow workers pledging to make Britain their main home to live and work in the UK. But campaigners say up to 40,000 people already living in the country, such as entrepreneurs, IT specialists and scientists, have been affected by the retrospective application of new rules designed to stop abuse of the system. The rules prioritise age, education and previous earnings, and no longer take into account previous work experience, or significant or exceptional professional achievement.

The HSMP Forum and Voice of Britain's Skilled Immigrants argue that thousands of people who gave up jobs, sold properties and moved families to the UK in the belief they would be able to settle here now face returning home because they no longer qualify.

In a letter to Liam Byrne, the immigration minister, Mr Green wrote: "We believe it is unfair that skilled and useful workers who have made a commitment to this country should have the rules of the game changed after they have arrived here. It is of course proper for the government to make changes to the qualification procedure for any class of immigrant, but not in the unfair and retrospective way which applied in this case. Since the Commission for Racial Equality has raised a new point about the failures in consultation before these changes were introduced, I would ask that all measures affecting those who were already in the UK when the changes came into force should be suspended while the legality of the changes is tested."

Mr Byrne defended the retrospective application of the reforms.

"The HSMP allows individuals with exceptional skills to come to the UK to seek work, but the changes were needed to guard against the risk of abuse and make sure those on the programme are actually doing highly skilled work," he told the Guardian.

The government is understood to have been concerned that people who had moved to the UK under the programme were not finding professional jobs.

The CRE has written to the Border and Immigration Agency's director general, Lin Homer, warning that it carried out an inadequate assessment of reforms before their introduction late last year. Nick Johnson, director of policy and public sector, told Ms Homer: "We are of the clear belief that the [race equality assessment] of the changes to the HSMP does not fully comply with the requirements of the race equality duty." Public bodies have a duty to promote racial equality and the vast majority of people on the highly skilled migrants programme are from ethnic minorities.

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