Business could be affected by a proposed immigration cap - 6th November 2010

The House of Commons home affairs select committee has warned that the government’s proposed cap on immigration into the UK will not greatly affect overall immigration but may do serious harm to the country’s “knowledge economy”.

A report by the committee states that the proposed cap, which is due to come into force next spring, will cover fewer than 20% of long-term migrants to this country but will adversely affect business as well as science and universities. There is widespread concern that the cap will not affect Premiership footballers but will hit elite scientists or engineers.

The government is committed to reducing net migration to the UK but the group of MPs say that the immigration cap only covers non-European economic migrants who are skilled or highly skilled and may also hit overseas students who account for a quarter of the total of 538,000 long-term non-EU migrants to the UK.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs committee, said: "We were particularly concerned about the potential effect on international students. Our evidence underlined their crucial importance to the cultural and intellectual life, as well as finances, of UK educational institutions. The government should direct its efforts to tackling those who abuse the system – bogus colleges and visa overstayers – rather than penalising legitimate students."