Third-party Contracting is to become a separate route under Tier 2.
- The MAC suggests raising the cost of these third-party contractor workers over and above the recommended increase in the minimum pay threshold and the proposed ISC. It recommends the pay threshold be set at £41,500, the effective benchmark for senior managers and specialists.
- Alternative mechanisms to cut numbers would be a cap based on the percentage of each organisation’s skilled (to NQF 6+) workforce that are Tier 2 migrants and/or a higher ISC for third-party contracting migrants.
- The Home Office will wish to consider applying an RLMT to this channel: many people view it as more like Tier 2 (General) than the conventional ICT channel.
- The firms operating this business model are adamant there is a big gap between labour demand for such IT workers and the available supply. The MAC recommends a thorough investigation into this labour market, with a view to boosting the supply of UK workers thereby cutting migrant numbers.