Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 14 May (HL Deb cols 565–70), whether they will now answer the question as to whether the family test was applied to the changes in the Immigration Rules.

During the Motion of Regret Speech on 14 May 2024, in answer to Baroness Lister’s question, I set out the evidence and advice that was taken in to account before making the decision to increase the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR).

We did not seek further advice from the Migration Advisory Committee, but we did consider its previous advice and evidence regarding net fiscal contributions and access to benefits.

We also took into account reports about the impact of the MIR on families by the Migration Observatory, the Journal of Economics, Race and Policy and the Justice and Home Affairs Committee.

For the avoidance of doubt, this means the Family Test was not applied when making the decision to increase the MIR. There is no legal obligation for the test to be applied.

A full regulatory assessment and equalities impact assessment on the changes to the Immigration Rules laid on 14 March will be published in due course.