Over the past few years the numbers of people coming to the UK has been a significant feature of political debate in the UK. The 12-month period saw the issue of 1.16 million visas granted for work, study or family reasons. Whilst the number of passenger arrivals to the UK has increased by 11% over the past 12-months, the number of work category visas were down 11% to 286,382.
Not too far behind this figure was the number of dependant visas issued in the year, 260,392. Whilst the health and care visa category accounted for the highest percentage of this group, it will be interesting to see what the impact of the care visa restrictions on dependants will have on this figure over the coming months.
Over the past few years the numbers of people coming to the UK has been a significant feature of political debate in the UK. In recent months the government have suggested modernising the UK immigration policy and have commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee to start the work on how immigration policy can best support sectors of the UK economy. Whilst we await these findings it seems that UK immigration will – as has been the case now for a number of years – remain a numbers game.