Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to review the pay cap on the Government’s proposed points based immigration system in response to the covid-19 outbreak to ensure that skilled nurses and carers are able to (a) continue to live in the UK and (b) travel to the UK to work.

We set out our proposals for the UK’s Points-Based Immigration System in a Policy Statement published on 19 February: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-points-based-immigration-system-policy-statement

Any employer wishing to sponsor a skilled worker under the new system must offer them a suitable salary. On the recommendation of the independent Migration Advisory Committee, the salary requirement for nurses and many other health professionals will be based on published national pay scales.

For those in other occupations, we will be lowering the general salary threshold from £30,000 to £25,600. This may be reduced further through tradeable points.