Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish the (a) eligibility criteria and (b) application process for (i) employers and (ii) sectors seeking to have occupations included on the proposed Temporary Shortage List; and what the criteria for inclusion on that list will be.

An interim Temporary Shortage List (TSL), containing occupations at RQF levels 3-5 which the Department for Business and Trade and His Majesty’s Treasury have identified as being important for the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy was included in Immigration Rules changes laid before Parliament on 1 July 2025 (HC 997).

The TSL will be subject to review by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). Occupations will only be included or retained on the list where the MAC has advised it is justified, where there is a workforce strategy in place, and where sectors are key to the industrial strategy or delivering critical infrastructure. The MAC will be commissioned to undertake this review shortly and will issue a call for evidence to which interested stakeholders should engage.