Highly Active Liquid Effluent Facility: The HALEF is made of seismically qualified reinforced concrete and comprises a series of storage tanks used to store radioactive waste arising from nuclear processing operations.

The House of Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) has launched an inquiry into work-based immigration and is seeking written evidence on the government's approach to the Skilled Worker visa and the relationship between immigration, skills, training and domestic recruitment. The inquiry follows the government's May 2025 immigration white paper, Restoring control over the immigration system, and will consider how immigration policy can support investment in domestic skills while reducing reliance on overseas recruitment. The call for evidence follows a series of deliberative workshops commissioned by the HASC, where members of the public considered the trades off associated with work migration policy and agreed a set of principles that should underpin decision making.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) has published correspondence with the Home Office concerning its plans for new large asylum accommodation sites. The correspondence comprises a letter from the Chair of HASC, Dame Karen Bradley, dated 26 June 2026, the response of the Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Alex Norris, dated 7 July 2026 and a further ministerial letter dated 3 July 2026 following HASC’s evidence session on 9 June 2026. The letters address: (1) how the Home Office communicated the proposals to Parliament, local representatives, police forces and affected communities; (2) how the sites at Bicester, Barnham, Linton-on-Ouse, Crowborough and Cameron Barracks were selected and assessed and (3) how services at large sites are to be procured, approved and monitored.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) has published a letter from the Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Alex Norris MP, setting out plans to commence provisions in the Sentencing Act 2026 (SA 2026) relating to foreign national offenders.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) has published a letter from the Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Alex Norris MP, outlining the conclusions of the Home Office’s review of the Adults at Risk in Immigration Detention policy and associated Detention Centre Rules 34 and 35. The policy, introduced in 2016 following Stephen Shaw’s review into the welfare of vulnerable persons in detention, was re-examined to improve its efficiency and effectiveness and to ensure the availability of appropriate safeguards for vulnerable people in immigration detention. The letter states that the reforms are intended to strengthen the early identification of vulnerability and ensure appropriate support in detention.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) published its report ‘Earned Settlement: Examining the Government’s proposed reforms’ on 13 March 2026 following a short inquiry into proposals contained in the Home Office consultation on changes to the route to indefinite leave to remain (ILR). The report examines the Government’s proposed introduction of an ‘earned settlement’ model under which the standard qualifying period for settlement would increase from five years to ten years, with potential variation to that period based on an individual’s economic contribution, earnings and integration factors. The Committee focuses particularly on the implications of these reforms for medium-skilled workers, children and young people and those already on existing routes to settlement.

Hazard Identification

Hazard and Operability study: Used as the best way to determine what types of hazards can arise from intended design conditions.

Immigration analysis: This analysis looks at aspects of Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 1691 which were either not mentioned in the Explanatory Memorandum (EM) or benefit from additional analysis. These relate to Suitability changes, closure of the Transit without Visa Scheme, changes in the English language requirement for settlement from 26 March 2027, and changes to the Skilled Worker route other than closing it to Afghan citizens under the new ‘temporary visa brake’.

A number of Home Office guidance documents have been updated further to the coming into force of relevant parts in Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 217. We have set out below changes we have seen which are in addition to reflecting changes in the Rules, or which supplement/clarify the new Rules in a noteworthy way. These cover guidance documents issued on 8 October 2024. One particularly significant set of updates relates to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), and the change to the deadline for joining family members. There are no updates which flag up the changes to going rates in Appendix Skilled Occupations, or which introduce any concessionary transitional measures.

Initial analysis of Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 217 has shown that there are to be some significant changes to going rates in sponsored roles. While the Explanatory Memorandum merely states that ‘The updates made in HC 590 to occupation codes and going salary rates contained a number of data/drafting errors, which are being corrected’, the changes are quite significant. By way of background, as part of the update to SOC 2020 codes in HC 590, there were substantial changes made to going rates, which, eg for Skilled Worker, affected both those already in the route and those applying into it for the first time (although to a different level). These came into force for persons issued with a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) on or after 4 April 2024. However, on 10 July 2024  (without any announcement) the Home Office issued a number of revised versions of the guidance documents on GOV.UK which set out salary going rates for eligible roles in sponsored routes. On closer inspection, these guidance documents contained a number of reductions in certain of the going rates from those in HC 590, and some advisers reported that Home Office caseworkers had confirmed to them that there were some errors in the rates initially published in HC 590 and that the correct figures to be relied on were those in the new guidance. This was subsequently confirmed in a message to sponsors on the Sponsor Management System (SMS), although this only referred specifically to Skilled Worker, while the changes also affected Global Business Mobility and Scale-up roles. The SMS message stated that the Rules would be amended in the Autumn. Closer inspection of the amendments now made to Appendix Skilled Occupations in HC 217 has revealed that, as well as the already mentioned reductions, there will also be increases in the going rates for quite a few roles, both in relation to Table 1 (new applications for Skilled Worker) and Table 2 (transitional applications for Skilled Worker, and all applications for other routes, where relevant).  Some of these rises are quite large. By way of example, in Table 1, the annual rate for 1258 Directors in consultancy services for new applications has risen from £38,400 to £57,500, while the going rate for 1140 Directors in logistics, warehousing and transport for transitional applications in Table 2 has risen from £36,900 to £45,300. These changes will be in force for persons issued a CoS on or after 8 October 2024.

Immigration analysis: Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 217 contains a number of changes to going rates of sponsored roles in the Skilled Worker, Global Business Mobility and Scale-up routes which will be implemented in the Rules for persons issued with a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) on and after 8 October 2024. The Explanatory Memorandum to the Statement merely states that these changes, which are made to Appendix Skilled Occupations, are to correct a ‘number of data/drafting errors’. Some of these changes (which were reductions from the figures introduced from April 2024 in HC 590) had already been implemented from 10 July 2024 in guidance, as a concession. However, the amended Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2020 code rates in HC 217 also include a large number of increases, some of which are quite significant. These affect both Table 1 to Appendix Skilled Occupations (which applies to the Skilled Worker route, to most new applications with a CoS issued on or after 4 April 2024) and Table 2 (which applies to all these routes, and for Skilled Worker to transitional and Health and Care ASHE salary jobs). For ease of reference by advisers, we have prepared tables which show the new and old rates for each of Table 1 and Table 2, which are set out below.