Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of lowering the Tier 2 Visa minimum salary threshold for the restaurant industry; and if he will make a statement.

Tier 2 (General) supports non-EEA high skilled workers taking up employment with UK based employers. In order to define what constitutes a skilled chef, the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and the Home Office developed criteria designed to identify the top 5% to 8% of chefs. Only chefs who meet these criteria are able to qualify under Tier 2 (General). Part of the qualifying criteria is that the job must pay a minimum salary of £29,570. This figure was derived from the minimum salary to be paid for an RQF 4 level occupation, the skill level for Tier 2 at the time the requirements were introduced. Tier 2 is now reserved for degree-level occupations.

The MAC has consulted widely with the restaurant industry on a number of occasions and they have concluded that the current criteria adequately identify the very best chefs whilst providing measures for preventing abuse of the system.

We do not agree that the immigration system is either the cause of, or the solution to, the challenges faced by the restaurant industry. Historically, there has always been a high turnover of restaurants, which is the result of many factors, including changing public tastes. As the MAC has noted, when one restaurant closes, often another one will open in its place, offering either similar or a different type of cuisine.

Immigration is a reserved matter. The Government considers the needs of the UK as a whole and is committed to developing an immigration system that serves the national interest.