House of Commons - Home Affairs

Select Committee on Home Affairs Second Report

Report

Background: access to British labour market

1. Bulgaria and Romania (the A2) acceded to the European Union on 1 January 2007. As Member States cannot restrict freedom of movement within the Union, all Bulgarian and Romanian nationals have an initial right of residence in the UK for three months and a right to remain indefinitely if they are students, self-employed persons, or self-sufficient persons.

2. Member States do, however, have discretion to restrict migration of workers for up to seven years. The UK Government chose to impose restrictions for an initial two-year period, to be reviewed on an annual basis. Low-skilled Bulgarian and Romanian nationals may only apply to work as seasonal agricultural workers or on sector-based schemes (currently limited to food processing); highly-skilled Bulgarian and Romanian workers and workers with specialist skills are admitted, as previously, on the basis of work permits.

3. According to the then Home Secretary, Rt Hon John Reid MP, the restrictions were imposed in order to "deal with" and avoid exacerbating the "transitional impacts" experienced by some areas following the 2004 EU enlargement, in terms of increased school admissions, overcrowding in private housing, and cost pressures on English language training.[1] This rationale was reiterated to us by the Minister of State for Nationality, Citizenship and Immigration, Mr Liam Byrne MP, on 6 December 2006.[2]

4. The Government announced on 30 October 2007 that, following a review of A2 arrangements, it had decided to maintain the restrictions until at least the end of 2008.[3]

Oral evidence

5. On 27 November we took oral evidence from the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration, Mr Liam Byrne MP, on the impact of Bulgarian and Romanian accession and the decision to continue to restrict access to the UK labour market; and from the Romanian Under-Secretary of State for European Affairs, Mr Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea, and the Acting Romanian Ambassador to the UK, Mrs Raduta Matache, on the reaction of the Romanian Government to this decision. We wish to draw the attention of the House to the following points raised in evidence.

NUMBERS OF A2 MIGRANTS

6. In the first three quarters of 2007, 32,238 Bulgarian and Romanian migrants were registered on A2 schemes out of 38,365 applicants.[4] The Government is unable to measure exactly how many Bulgarians and Romanians are living in the UK but envisages an improvement in its ability to provide statistics when new systems for counting people in and out are put in place.[5]

SCHEME COSTS

7. Set-up costs for the A2 schemes were £1.1 million and projected running costs for 2007 are £1,516,000, marginally less than the overall figure of £1.6 million predicted in December 2006.[6]

ILLEGAL WORKERS

8. Fines have been served on 159 Romanian and 30 Bulgarian nationals in relation to the new offence of taking employment without authority. No-one has been imprisoned for this offence. Border and Immigration Agency operations to combat illegal working have not encountered large numbers of Bulgarian and Romanian nationals.[7]

BENEFIT CLAIMS

9. 380 child benefit claims and 137 tax credit claims from Bulgarians and Romanians residing in the UK were approved in the period July-September 2007. In total, 1,322 child benefit claims were approved in the period January-October 2007. As at 31 October 2007, 7 children in receipt of benefits were not resident in the UK.[8] The Minister of State acknowledged the potential risk of migrants continuing to claim benefits fraudulently on return to their native countries, but has no knowledge that this is a genuine problem.[9]

THE DECISION TO CONTINUE RESTRICTIONS

10. The Minister of State assured us that the rationale behind the Government's decision to continue the restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian workers was the need for a balance in immigration policy in recognition of the fact that the impact of immigration on British public life is wider than simply economic:

When there is evidence of specific, isolated pressures my sense is that we just should not take risks. This is not about Bulgarian and Romanian; it is about getting the right balance for Britain's immigration policy.[10]

11. Italy is the only major economy in Europe to lift restrictions on workers from the A2.[11]

12. While the Minister of State is not persuaded of the need for further low-skilled schemes for migrant workers, owing to native unemployment rates, this is contrary to the views expressed by the agricultural industry and the anecdotal evidence some of us have received regarding labour shortages in our constituencies.[12]

ROMANIAN REACTION

13. We took evidence from the Romanian Under-Secretary of State for European Affairs and the Acting Romanian Ambassador to the UK. They told us that the Romanian Government was surprised and disappointed by what it regards as a discriminatory decision to continue restrictions, given the UK's support for enlargement and the expectations it places on its Romanian ally. In its view, the restrictions were politically-motivated given the low unemployment rate in Romania, the long-term trend for economic growth and that preferred destinations for Romanian migrants are in fact Italy, Spain and Germany:

We believe that the measures taken by the British authorities are not sufficiently fair or sound … They are not fair because we think we are paying the cost of measures taken by the British authorities in 2003-04 in respect of the accession of the first eight central European countries to the European Union on 1 May 2004.[13]

14. He also told us that the Romanian Government supported views expressed by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and the recruitment industry that the A2 regulations present procedural problems.[14] The Minister of State has undertaken to look at any further evidence of complexity to see if the regulations can be simplified.[15]

Conclusion

15. The UK Government is committeed to reviewing the labour market restrictions for Bulgarian and Romanian workers again in 12 months time. We reserve the right to revisit the issues outlined in this report at that time.

1 HC Deb, 24 October 2006, cols 82WS-84WS [Commons written ministerial statement] Back

2 HC 143-I, Q 1 Back

3 HC Deb, 30 October 2007, cols 34WS-35WS [Commons written ministerial statement] Back

4 Ev 19 Back

5 Qq 1, 3 Back

6 Q 30 Back

7 Q 35 Back

8 Ev 20 Back

9 Qq 19, 23 Back

10 Q 14 Back