Oral Answers to Questions

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Monday 10th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kit Malthouse]

The funding formula has been in place for some time, and there is obviously consternation across the House about the impact it may have, along with a number of the other formulas on which we allocate resources. We will keep this under review, and will do so on this formula, but for the moment the quickest and most efficacious way for us to share out this huge uplift in the number of police officers across the country was using the existing formula, and I hope those 153 officers will be put to good use.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

9. What plans she has to introduce a new points-based immigration system; and if she will make a statement.

[Dr Jamie Wallis (Bridgend) (Con)]

17. What plans she has to introduce an Australian-style points-based immigration system.

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Priti Patel)]

The Government will introduce a points-based immigration system that works in the interests of the United Kingdom, and that is fair and prioritises the skills people have to offer wherever they come from.

[Michael Fabricant]

I for one welcome this, particularly the fact that we will be able to get the brightest and the best not only from Europe but from other nations as well, such as the US, Australia and New Zealand, and Canada. But Lichfield is a rural constituency—a particularly beautiful one, I might add—and we have a need not just for people with great skills but for part-time horticultural workers. What can my right hon. Friend do to assure people they will come to the UK?

[Priti Patel]

Without wishing to compete with my hon. Friend’s beautiful rural constituency, I, too, have one. Of course, in order to take back control we are effectively bringing in these changes, and with that I am doubling the number of people who can go through the seasonal agricultural workers scheme, and more information will follow on that in due course.