Q&As

Q&As

These Q&As seek to briefly address common questions faced when dealing with immigration law and policy matters.

The Q&As supplement and link to other more detailed content within Lexis+® UK, but are intentionally short. It is anticipated that a brief Q&A will be most helpful when you need a quick overview of an issue and its likely impact. This might arise, for example, for advisers needing to provide advice, business development materials or training at short notice. The Q&A content on Lexis+® UK is date-stamped. This date is the publish date and states the law

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Latest Immigration News

Lord Reed's speech on trust in the courts in a populist age

Lord Reed, President of the UK Supreme Court, gave an important speech last week about the challenges facing courts in an era of populism. He said the court needs to deploy ‘judicial statecraft’ to build trust and withstand tensions and suggested that some 'ambitious' apex court judgments in the past had been damaging. He made these comments in the Peter Taylor Memorial Address on 12 June 2025.

Justice Together highlights growing legal advice gap for migrants in latest UK-wide report

Justice Together has published a report by Jo Wilding examining the ongoing crisis in immigration and asylum legal advice across the UK. Updating her 2023 findings, the report analyses legal aid and other low-cost advice provision in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, highlighting a significant gap between need and access—most notably a 57% shortfall in legal aid coverage for asylum cases in England and Wales. The report attributes the growing demand to systemic pressures, legislative complexity, and a hostile political climate, noting serious implications for access to justice.

Migration Observatory outlines disparities in labour market outcomes for UK migrants

The Migration Observatory has published a data briefing examining the integration of migrants into the UK labour market, focusing on employment patterns, occupational distribution, earnings, and working conditions. Drawing on ONS and HMRC data, the report highlights that in December 2024, adult migrants—defined as non-UK nationals at the time of National Insurance registration—comprised 19% of the UK employee workforce, with significant sectoral and regional variation. London had the highest proportion of non-UK employees (42%), while Wales had the lowest (10%).

FLEX experts call for domestic worker visa reform on International Workers' Day

Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) experts have published an analysis highlighting ongoing issues with the UK's Overseas Domestic Worker visa on International Domestic Workers' Day 2025. The article examines changes made to the visa in 2012 and 2016, citing Kalayaan's 2024 data showing increased exploitation indicators after these reforms. The authors note the draft Employment Rights Bill does not address visa restrictions and call for reinstatement of rights contained in the original 1998 visa, which allowed workers to change employers and seek longer visa extensions than is currently the case. They also call for increased access to justice around employment rights, such as compensation for unpaid wages or other labour exploitation. The analysis draws on evidence showing that, eg, 41% of workers issued visas after April 2016 presented trafficking indicators.