Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve technical visa access for fintech services.

At the 2021 budget and in Build Back Better: Our Plan for Growth the government announced a set of targeted high skilled visa reforms to build on the new points-based immigration system to create an internationally competitive visa system for high skilled, globally mobile talent from around the world.

This included creating a new fast-track visa process for UK scale-ups, including fintech services, to recruit high-skilled migrants. Those with a job offer at the required skills level from a recognised UK scale-up will be able to qualify for a fast-track visa. The government is continuing to work closely with industry representatives and businesses to build this new route. We will provide further details on the scale-up visa by July and the route will launch by March 2022.

In addition to our plans for high-skilled visas the government will continue to implement reforms to streamline and simplify the sponsorship system. The government has already taken significant steps to reform the system and we will publish a delivery roadmap in the summer setting out our plans for further reforms. These changes will benefit business across the UK and in all sectors.