Speeches by Cooper.

“Construction is a really good example. Construction will continue to be on the new temporary shortage list. But the difference between the temporary shortage list and the previous lists that the Government have had, with discounts and so on, is that the whole approach should be, first, a temporary arrangement, and seco…”

“As part of the immigration White Paper, we have already identified a series of occupations that will be taken off what used to be the immigration salary list, which we are abolishing and replacing with the temporary shortage list. The number of occupations on the temporary shortage list will be significantly lower than…”

“We may find it in our notes and be able to tell you the expected reduction in the number of occupations on the list. We will be reducing that number of occupations, but then the list has to be linked to the workforce strategies for the future. Part of what the Migration Advisory Committee will do when they are assessin…”

“That will vary from occupation to occupation. Clearly, if you have something where the training takes a long time, that will be different from something where there may be some additional needs for training, but to be honest, you could do the training in two months. There will be a difference in the approach taken to d…”

“The approach is that the skills threshold is being raised, so the skilled worker visa will apply to graduate level jobs. Below graduate level jobs will be able to go on the temporary shortage list only if they are in, effectively, the critical areas—for example, those that are critical to the industrial strategy or som…”

“The net migration figures are for people coming to the UK for more than 12 months. There are obviously already a series of different temporary visas and arrangements for businesses—for example, for people who want to come for business meetings in the UK as part of international trade. It is really important that you ca…”

“You are right that people often link the different things, but actually I think people have different attitudes to different aspects of legal and illegal migration. I think people’s strongest concerns are about illegal migration and the dangerous small boat crossings that undermine border security and put lives at risk…”

“I do not have those figures in front of me. I do not know whether we have them—”

“We will have to write to you with that. Obviously, we have set up a system for those who come to the UK on a care worker visa, but then it turns out that the sponsorship of that care worker has had to be revoked because the sponsor was not meeting the proper standards—they did not have proper checks in place, or someti…”

“For a transition period, employers will continue to be able to recruit international care workers who are here already on an alternative legal route. Those who are here legally already, with permission to work, will be able to get care worker jobs and to transition to a care worker visa. We will continue to do that for…”

“We think that the care industry will be able to recruit from those who are here lawfully, whether UK residents or people who are already here lawfully from overseas. We think they will be able to do that and meet the recruitment pressures that they face, but we are working with the Health Department on this. As we intr…”

“Yes, we are continuing to do that. I think it is particularly important that that academic timetable for young people is taken into account. I am very conscious of that and of ensuring that we recognise that as part of our continuing support for the Ukraine scheme.”

“I think there is a series of factors behind what has happened. We have seen this big increase in small boat crossings over the last few years; if you go back to 2018, it was barely a handful. Since then, an entire criminal industry has taken hold along our borders, with networks, including supply chains, that spread ri…”

“In terms of strengthening international co-operation, we have always said that we would like to see a replacement for the Dublin scheme, and we recognise the impact of that. There is evidence of that impact, with people who arrive in the UK raising that as being a factor for them.”

“Nobody should be making these dangerous boat crossings; they undermine border security and they put lives at risk. The numbers that we saw on Saturday were completely unacceptable, as is the continuing nature of the problem. The central focus of the co-operation that we are building at the moment, particularly with Fra…”

“We have always said that we would like to see those sorts of arrangements, and a replacement for that kind of arrangement. We obviously need to make sure that we have a system in place that is workable. You also referred to the impact in terms of the gangs. Information will be released later this afternoon about an add…”

“We inherited these contracts.”

“I am concerned about the level of money that has gone into these contracts. There is also the scale of the backlog that we inherited. We need to end asylum hotels altogether. Some of that is about bringing the whole backlog down and being able to clear the decision making.”

“In terms of the management of the contracts, we will introduce tighter conditions in the contracts. I think you have Minister Angela Eagle giving you more evidence on that.”

“She can talk through some of the details on that. You will know that we have been taking action to remove one of the suppliers, Stay Belvedere, from the supply chain, as part of the tighter contract management. We will keep all contracts under review, but the core issue is to bring the overall numbers down in the asylu…”