Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of replacing the Shortage Occupation List with the Immigration Salary List on the number of asylum seekers who are eligible to work who are in employment.

The Home Secretary has commissioned the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to carry out a rapid review of the new Immigration Salary List (ISL) in time for its implementation in the Spring Immigration Rules. The MAC is due to report on 23 February, at which point the Government will consider its recommendations carefully. We will keep the list under regular review and the MAC will carry out a fuller review later in the year.

The introduction of the ISL will not undermine our policy that asylum claims by an individual applying for permission to work must still be outstanding for 12 months or more and any resulting changes to the policy will be announced in due course.