Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the reasons the Government is yet to achieve its target of reducing net migration to the tens of thousands.

The UK will remain an open and tolerant country; one that recognises the valuable contribution migrants make to our society and welcomes those with the skills and expertise to make our nation better. We will control immigration so that our system serves the national interest.

As we conduct the negotiations to leave the European Union, it must be a priority to regain more control of the numbers of people who come here from Europe. It will take time to achieve that because until we leave the European Union we will still be affected by free movement rules.

The Government will not solely rely on the Brexit negotiation to deliver the net migration target. We are clear that employers must move away from an unsustainable reliance on migrant workers. We have closed Tier 1 routes which allowed non-EEA migrants to come to the UK to look for work. We have reformed the employer-led Tier 2 route following expert advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee. Through the introduction of the Immigration Skills Charge, we are encouraging employers to invest in training and up-skilling the resident workforce.