On 17 January 2024, Home Secretary, Rt Hon James Cleverly MP, wrote to Chair of the Migration Committee (MAC), Professor Brian Bell, to carry out a rapid review of the new Immigration Salary List (ISL), previously known as the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) with a view to implementation of an initial ISL from April 2024. Bell has responded by accepting to commission the review. The MAC is expected to report with recommendations by 23 February 2024. A fuller review of the ISL will be commissioned in the near future.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has launched a self-commissioned review to assess how the immigration system could be used to attract top talent to the UK. The review was announced on 27 February 2026 through a letter from the MAC chair to the Home Secretary. The committee will examine how immigration routes could be optimised to draw high-skilled individuals to the UK, with the review forming part of the MAC's independent assessment of immigration policy effectiveness. The MAC aims to complete the report in the winter of 2026.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has launched stage two of its Temporary Shortage List (TSL) review through a call for evidence. This review, commissioned by the Home Secretary in July 2025, follows stage one which was published in October 2025. Stage two, running from October 2025 until July 2026, seeks detailed evidence on the occupations that passed stage one to determine which should be recommended for TSL inclusion.

The Migration Advisory Committee's (MAC) December 2024 annual report highlights significant changes in UK immigration policy following the election of a Labour government in July 2024. The MAC has been tasked with reviewing financial requirements for family visas and examining the use of work immigration routes for IT and Engineering professionals. This forms part of the government's broader strategy to align immigration policy more closely with skills policy and industrial strategy (an aim which is discussed in the report including the uncertainties in relying on such approach as a way of reducng net migration). The report also includes quantitative estimates of the fiscal impact of Skilled Workers, and their households; with a comparison between migrant groups and the native population (this is the first time that the MAC has done this). The report notes recent changes to Health and Care visas, implemented in late 2023 and early 2024, which have led to a decrease in visa issuances. Additionally, the MAC's role has been expanded to include yearly assessments of key sectors' use of the immigration system, with corresponding increases in the Committee's capacity, including the transition of the Chair role to a full-time position and the creation of a new Deputy Chair role.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published a report analysing long-term retention, settlement and departure patterns among migrants on the Skilled Worker routes (including the former Tier 2 (General), Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker visa routes) between 2014 and 2024 using linked Home Office administrative datasets covering approximately 916,000 migrant journeys. The report examines how stay rates vary according to nationality, salary, age, gender, occupation and sector and assesses the implications of long-term retention for immigration policy, workforce planning and fiscal modelling.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published its report on the minimum income requirement (MIR) for the partner migration route recommending that the MIR is not matched to the skilled worker route and making recommendations for different calculations that could be used instead and recommendations to improve the way the MIR is evidenced. This news piece sets out the key points in the report.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published its rapid review of the Immigration Salary List (ISL), which is the name that the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) will be replaced with from April 2024, as part of the package of reforms around the five-point plan for legal immigration announced by the Home Secretary, James Cleverly MP in December 2023. This is an interim review ahead of a full review which will take place later in 2024. In that context, the MAC has asked the government to clarify the longer-term purposes and any changes to the benefits of the ISL (in line with similar concerns set out in its 2023 review of the SOL). As this was a rapid review, the MAC only looked at jobs on the current SOL, and those which it previously recommended were added and have not been yet (65 in total). It used the SOC 2020 classifications for the review. It did not undertake any stakeholder engagement. Given that the only benefits of being on the ISL will be a 20% reduction from the general threshold (as well as marginally reduced fees) the review focused on occupations where the individual occupation-specific threshold will be less than the relevant general threshold. It recommends removing from the ISL all roles to which this does not apply - and this includes all roles on national pay scales as in all cases their occupation-specific thresholds are in excess of their general threshold of £23,200. It also recommends removal of three occupations to which the benefit of inclusion would apply: ‘Agriculture and fishing trades not elsewhere classified – only jobs in the fishing industry’ (SOC 2020 code 5119), ‘Fishing and other elementary agriculture occupations not elsewhere classified – only deckhands on large fishing vessel (9 metres and above)’ (SOC 2020 code 9119) and ‘Plasterers’ (SOC 2020 code 5321). This repeats the MAC’s 2023 recommendations that they should not be included. The MAC has recommended that the remaining 21 occupations which would receive a benefit from being on the list be included on the ISL, which represents 8% of job roles eligible for the Skilled Worker route by employment. Previously, approximately 30% of job roles eligible for the SW route were on the SOL.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published a report, outlining the methodology it has used to estimate the fiscal impact of migrants in the UK. It has provided a full set of estimates for migrants who arrived on the Skilled Worker (SW) visas in 2022-2023. The MAC explains how it allocates public expenditure, calculates tax revenues and models lifetime fiscal effects using both static and dynamic approaches. Drawing on survey data and newly matched Home Office–HMRC records, it sets out the assumptions required for forecasting future earnings, employment patterns, public spending and migrant settlement behaviour, noting that these estimates inherently depend on uncertain long-term projections.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has completed its review of salary requirements across the Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, Global Business Mobility and Scale-up routes, responding to a July 2025 commission which asked it to advise on the level and structure of salary thresholds, the use of discounts, the design of going rates and the frequency of uprating. The review is set against recent policy changes, including raising the skills threshold for Skilled Worker and Health and Care visas to RQF 6+ and the replacement of the Immigration Salary List with a Temporary Shortage List (TSL), as part of a wider strategy to reduce perceived over-reliance on migration and to align immigration with industrial and skills policy. A summary of the report is set out below.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published its review of the Seasonal Worker visa, which sets out the reasons for having a Seasonal Worker Scheme, how the scheme works, the economic and social impact of the scheme, the impact of the scheme on employers, the welfare issues that arise for the workers, and recommendations based on five key themes. The report considers the call for evidence that ran from June–October 2023, stakeholder engagement, and both internal and external research.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published the 'Temporary Shortage List (TSL): Stage 2 report', its final recommendations on which occupations should be given access to the new TSL created by the Immigration White Paper. The report follows the MAC’s Stage 1 report of October 2025, which identified 82 occupations potentially crucial to the government’s Industrial Strategy or the building of critical infrastructure. Stage 2 applies four sequential tests—whether an occupation is in shortage, whether sectors have a credible ‘Jobs Plan’ to grow the domestic workforce, whether exploitation risks are managed and whether TSL access is otherwise appropriate–to determine which of those 82 occupations should gain time-limited access to the visa system. Key points from the report are summarised below, followed by a full list of the 82 occupations considered and the MAC’s recommendation for each.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published its Rapid Review into the Graduate route, together with a letter to the Home Secretary from the MAC Chair Professor Brian Bell. The report recommends that the government retains the route in its current form. It considers that the route has achieved the objectives initially set by the government in 2021 and did not find any significant immigration abuse (defined as deliberate non-compliance with immigration rules) although it does have some concerns about the recruitment agents used by higher education institutions providing misleading information to prospective international students, and recommends that the government considers mandatory requirements rather than a voluntary framework in this context). It notes that the January 2024 removal of the ability of taught masters students to bring dependants has already begun to considerably reduce international student numbers and that further restrictions to the Graduate route would likely make decline more pronounced, leading the government to fail to achieve its International Education Strategy target and to substantial financial difficulty for universities. Early indications suggest a 63% reduction in the number of deposits paid for the September 2024 intake by international postgraduate applicants for institutions in the UK compared to the same time in the previous year. Given international student fees help make up the financial deficit that universities have from teaching domestic students and research, any significant restrictions to the route should only be considered once the structural funding issues in the higher education sector have been addressed.