Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of stricter border checks for people from EU Member States after the UK leaves the EU on the life sciences industry in the UK.

Science, research and innovation are vital to our country’s prosperity, health and wellbeing. The Government remains committed to ensuring world leading life sciences talent is retained and attracted to the UK. We are working to ensure that our visa arrangements are closely aligned to the sector’s needs.

The Government recently announced that we would remove the numbers cap under the Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa, which exists to attract leading scientists and researchers to the United Kingdom. We also intend to expand the range of bodies able to endorse applicants under this route, and my Department is currently working with the Home Office on how best to achieve this. My Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister has also made clear our longer-term commitment to introducing an Australian-style points-based system, which will seek to attract talented individuals from across the globe to work, live in and contribute to the United Kingdom.