BAM Policy Note November 2019

Policy Brief                                                                                               
November 2019

In November, BAM and the Chartered ABS made a joint submission to the Migration Advisory Committee’s consultation on the salary threshold and points-based system proposed for the UK’s future skills-based immigration system. The business and management community plays a crucial role in delivering UK growth, innovation, and prosperity.  In our evidence, we point out that at least 1 in every 3 business and management academics are of international origin, and we provide detailed evidence of the numbers of international staff in business and management by contract type and by the UK region in which they are working.  These international staff often bring with them number and data skills that are in short supply in the UK, and which would be difficult to replace from the current pipeline of UK post-graduates. The UK’s future immigration system will therefore need to be flexible, simple, easily navigable, and welcoming, if the government wishes to ensure the continued vitality of the UK’s science, research, and innovation system.  We highlight that removing the proposed £30K annual pay threshold for skilled migrants will be but a key move (among many) needed to ensure that the future immigration system is fit for purpose.  Read more at: https://www.bam.ac.uk/policy.

Because of the upcoming general election on 12 December 2019, almost all Parliamentary inquiries have now been closed, with the exception of the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa inquiry in the House of Lords.  The Commons Select committees were dissolved with the dissolution of Parliament on 6 November and will be reformed after the general election. However, there are still a number of UK Government and European Commission consultations underway.  One that will be of particular interest to many in our community is the consultation on parental leave and pay (part of the Good Work Plan: Proposals to support families), which is being run by the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Though we won’t be putting in a BAM-wide response to this one, I encourage our BAM members with expertise in this area to provide evidence on an individual basis. Further details of the consultation can be found here, and consultation response can be made online here. The consultation closes on 29 November 2019.  If you have any questions, please email me at: [email protected].

We should also note that this month Sir Adrian Smith's review on future frameworks for international collaboration on research and innovation was published (available here). BEIS also just published its Business Productivity review, which will be of interest to many in our community (available here). In other policy news, Parliament continues to offer impact training for academics, and have recently announced some new dates and times for these sessions. To learn more, visit: https://www.parliament.uk/academic-training. Finally, we encourage you to regularly visit the policy page on the BAM website for this and other policy news!