UK Migration Advisory Committee: no preferential access to work for EU citizens post Brexit

 

A long-awaited report on EEA migration, commissioned by the Home Office in July 2017, has been published this week by the Migration Advisory committee (MAC). It is intended to serve as a basis for a White Paper on the future migration policy from 1 January 2021, after Brexit and the implementation period.

The report’s main recommendation is that all migration should be managed with no preferential access to work for EU citizens. This is notwithstanding that the UK-EU Brexit negotiations might come to an arrangement for easier access to the UK labour market after Brexit as part of the negotiations.

The Cabinet has endorsed the MAC’s main findings last week, in respect of no preferential treatment for EU citizens.

In essence, the view of the MAC is that EEA migration after Brexit shall follow broadly the current sponsor licence system. Although the report suggests some amendments to the current scheme, and loosens it up to some extent, for example to extend it to medium skilled workers or to extend the jobs on the shortage occupation lists and review the current Resident Labour Market Test, the burden on employers to apply for sponsor licences to employ EEA nationals would be significant.

The fact that the MAC decided to retain the principle of the sponsorship system to apply it to EU workers arriving in the UK after Brexit is a concern, in particular since net migration from the EU has declined significantly since the Brexit Referendum.  Up-to-date figures from the National Statistics Office¹ reveal that EU net migration continued its decline falling from a peak of +189,000 arrivals in 2016 to +87,000 arrivals for the year 2017. And the number of EU citizens leaving the UK has remained stable. Looking at the number of EU nationals in employment in the UK, the National Statistics Office findings are that there were 2.28 million EU nationals working in the UK in 2017, this figure being 86,000 lower than a year earlier.

For those employers who rely on a predominantly EU workforce, the MAC’s recommendation to the government is therefore challenging news. After Brexit, EU workers will require permission to work. Their employers will have to perform compliance checks and adhere to their duties under the sponsor management system otherwise they will face civil penalties of up to £20,000 per worker.

Given that a quarter of the EU workforce in finance is currently in so called low-skilled jobs, employers will not have an option to replace these under the Sponsor Licence scheme. This might lead to work shortages and might leave whole sectors seeking for workers.

Of course, the new regime will not apply to those EEA citizens in the UK now and until 31 December 2020, provided they have applied for settled status (permanent residence or the new proposed ‘settled status’) or for its temporary alternative. And, as we are now just six months away from Brexit, we strongly recommend that any EU national currently in the UK, and their employers, seek advice as soon as possible to ensure they do not become part of the administrative bottle neck that is bound to form then when the Home Office has to cope with hundreds of thousands of demands for settled or pre settled status by EU nationals registering under the new scheme.

It is also worth employers heeding the MAC report’s conclusion in its analysis of EEA migration: ‘’Taken together, it is possible that future flows would fall further even without a policy change and that concern about free movement would recede as a result. The UK may have ended free movement from the EU just as it stops being perceived as a problem.’’

Our immigration team is on hand to assist employers who wish to ensure they can attract and retain talents in their business in the UK and you are welcome to contact Koshi Blavo Barna or Isabel Sylvestre with your queries.

For further information, please contact:

Isabel Sylvestre, Associate

ebl miller rosenfalck, London

e:  is@millerrosenfalck.com 

t: +44 20 7553 4073

 

¹Migration Statistics Quarterly report: August 2018, by the Office for National Statistics.

The material contained in this article is provided for general purposes only and does not constitute legal or other professional advice. Appropriate legal advice should be sought for specific circumstances and before action is taken.
© Miller Rosenfalck LLP, October 2018

 

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