Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of her immigration policies on the (a) population of and (b) labour market in Scotland.

The UK’s immigration system enables individuals to enter UK for work purposes from all parts of the world where they have a suitable job offer and meet our criteria. This is helping fill skills gaps, boosting our economy and through specific visa offers, such as the Health and Care visa, supporting our public services.

There is no compelling argument that Scotland should have a different immigration system to the rest of the UK. Indeed it’s economy benefits from the simplicity and clarity of having one single system for our country. Scotland’s economically active rate is closely aligned with UK average. Minor variations are accounted for in the Scotland specific Shortage Occupation List.