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7.59 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Fiona Mactaggart): I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) for providing us with an opportunity to debate these important issues. I appreciate his passionate commitment to the enlargement of the European Union, which no one listening to him could have missed. The Government share his commitment and vision. EU enlargement is extremely welcome to our country, which is why, as my hon. Friend acknowledged, our Prime Minister was at the forefront in calling for early accession for the 10 countries and is widely acknowledged as the pre-eminent European leader. After 1 May, citizens of the accession states will be free to travel across all EU borders. As my right hon. Friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary made clear in December 2002, we believe that the United Kingdom will benefit from new EU citizens coming to this country, working legally, and paying taxes and national insurance.
The United Kingdom has one of the most dynamic and successful economies in the world. While America, Japan, and much of the euro area have suffered from recession, the British economy has grown uninterrupted for every quarter and every year since 1997. At the same time, unemployment in Britain is now significantly lower than in all other major European states, at 5 per cent., compared to an EU average of 8 per cent. and a rate of 9 per cent. in Germany and France. Migration both contributes to and has been driven by this success. By increasing labour supply and reducing domestic skills shortages, migration helps to raise productivity and boost economic growth.
In the United Kingdom, migrants make up just 8 per cent. of the total population, yet they generate 10 per cent. of our overall wealth. Similarly, 15 per cent. of trend UK growth stems from predicted migration flows. We currently have more than 500,000 vacancies in our labour market, and we will benefit from the skills, flexibility and willingness to work of these new migrant workers, as we have in the past. That is why my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary confirmed on 23 February in the House that we are allowing workers from the eight central and eastern European accession states access to our labour markets, subject only to a straightforward registration scheme.
When we first set out our position, back in 2002, only those countries with high levels of unemployment were planning to introduce restrictions on work for accession
state nationals. Since then, other countries have changed their stance. That must influence the way in which we implement our commitment, but let me be clear: our commitment remains. It clearly makes sense for us to ensure that our approach does not leave us exposed.My hon. Friend is concerned that the workers' registration scheme can only be a deterrent to anyone wanting to come here. I do not believe that this one will be. Under the scheme, accession country nationals will be free to enter the United Kingdom and to take up any employment here without restriction. When they find and start a job, they will need to apply immediately to the Home Office to be registered as a worker. There is no parole period; they will just apply, having found a job. They will do this by post, to our offices in Sheffield. They will need to provide information about what job they are doing, at what wage, and where in the country it is. They will be issued with a registration certificate, as evidence that they have registered. The registration will last for 12 months, provided that they stay in that employment. If they change jobs, they will need to apply to renew their registration.
I am aware that my hon. Friend is concerned about backlogs in processing applications by the immigration and nationality directorate and he referred to some of my past concerns about these matters. He will know, however, that steps are in hand to reduce those backlogs, and I am sure that he will be reassured by the fact that, for this new scheme, the Department is gearing up to provide an efficient and responsive service. We want to encourage maximum compliance with the scheme, and there is no reason why any worker from the accession countries should not comply with the registration requirement, as it will be in their interests to do so. We therefore need to ensure that the scheme works well.
The scheme will be administered within the framework operated by Work Permits (UK), whose performance standards I should like to draw to the attention of my hon. Friend. It turns round more than 80 per cent. of applications for work permits within 24 hours. "Ah", my hon. Friend will think. "What about the other 20 per cent?" Nearly all of those, however, are done within a week. Only 2 to 3 per cent. of applications take more than a week, and none takes more than a month. We can aim to achieve the same standards in the workers registration scheme, and I hope that he will find that reassuring, as I do.
We are looking to recover at least some of the costs of the scheme, so there will be a modest fee to cover administrative charges. The cost should be outweighed, however, by the benefit to the workers of access to our labour market. We do not expect the costs to the taxpayer to be significant. Obviously, my hon. Friend is concerned about the details of the scheme and how it will work in practice. Further details will be made available shortly, along with detailed guidance, which he rightly expects, for nationals of accession countries and employers. I will ensure that he is kept in touch with how those are developed.
Keith Vaz: I thank my hon. Friend for all the information that she has given so far. What is the
position of someone who makes an application but does not get the certificate back for a certain period? Can they carry on working while they are awaiting the certificate, or must they cease working until they get the certificate?
Fiona Mactaggart: In the scenario that I have just described, such a person would be working before they had applied—they would have found and taken a job. Therefore, this process does not prevent people from working; it is merely a monitoring mechanism.
The purpose of the scheme is to allow us to track properly our commitment. It will give good information to the authorities and the Home Office about how, in practice, the right to work of people from accession countries is operating. They will be able to join our legal labour market in an open way, enjoying equal rights as well as contributing to our economy and society. That will allow us to monitor what is happening to our labour market, and where in the country and in what sectors accession country nationals are finding work. It will tell us where those paediatricians, dentists, dustmen and plumbers from Poland, to whom the Home Secretary referred in his statement, are working. Are they filling that gap in the dentistry market in Scarborough, evident from the long queue that we saw reported in many of our newspapers? We have a good pattern of what is happening, and if, against all expectations, there were adverse impacts on our labour markets—let me reiterate that we do not expect that—we could act immediately to re-impose restrictions.
My hon. Friend may make a reasonable point when he says that a better arrangement for administering our benefits system might have dealt better with these issues. That is not what happened, however. We need to take steps to safeguard our benefits system and ensure that it is not exploited. Accession state nationals who are not working will be expected to support themselves. If they cannot do so, they will not have a right of residence here and will have to return to their own country. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will bring forward regulations to prevent access to benefits by those not working, and my right hon. Friend the Paymaster General will bring forward regulations to prevent them from claiming child benefit. Access to other benefits, such as social housing, will also be restricted. That is clearly the right course of action. It would not be fair for accession country nationals to come to this country purely to access benefits to which they had not contributed.
I hope that my hon. Friend and the House will agree that, overall, the package announced last week is fair and balanced. It will send a clear message to the Polish community centres in my constituency and in his constituency, which, like us, will be welcoming these new migrants, that they are welcome, that they have absolute access to our labour markets, that we welcome their skills, that we recognise what they have to offer Britain, and that we are providing a sensible and balanced package within which they can offer those skills.
They will be welcome to Britain, to work openly and honestly, and to support themselves. Those who wish to find a job can do so. Those who wish to come for short periods will have to have the means to do so. So the UK will enjoy the benefits of enlargement and the accession
countries' citizens will enjoy the benefits of enlargement, but we shall still maintain the ability to control its impact on our labour markets, if necessary.I believe that that is the wise and practical way to proceed. I do not think that there is any diminution of our commitment to free access to labour. There is merely a sensible process for managing it.
I am glad that my hon. Friend has given me the opportunity to describe further how that will work in practice.
- Adjourned accordingly at ten minutes past Eight o'clock.
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