Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the potential annual cost to the NHS of the introduction of the Immigration Skills Charge (a) from April 2017 and (b) in the event of that charge being extended to cover nationals of countries within the European Economic Area after the UK has left the EU.

The Immigration Skills Charge will be paid by UK employers recruiting workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) through the Tier 2 skilled worker route. There are no plans to extend the charge to employers recruiting from the European Economic Area post-Brexit.

We have not estimated the potential annual cost to the NHS of the Immigration Skills Charge. The cost to the NHS will depend on its use of the Tier 2 skilled worker route.