Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an overall cap on the number of migrants to the UK.

The Government remains completely committed to reducing levels of legal migration. Our points-based immigration system allows us to control who comes to the UK to work, study and visit.

In May 2023, we took decisive action to tackle the substantial rise in the number of students bringing dependants to the UK. These reforms have now been implemented.

On 4 December 2023, we announced a major package of measures to curb immigration abuse and further reduce net migration.

This package of measures, taken together with the measures the Government announced in May 2023 to restrict the number of overseas students able to bring dependants, means that around 300,000 people who were eligible to come to the UK last year would not be able to do so in future.

We keep all our immigration policies under review to ensure they best serve the UK and reflect the public’s priorities, including filling skills gaps and growing the economy.