News

16.12.2021 - Bank of England raises interest rates to 0.25%

The Bank of England has raised interest rates for the first time in more than three years, in response to calls to tackle surging price rises.

The increase to 0.25% from 0.1% came despite fears that the Omicron variant of Covid could slow the UK economy by causing people to spend less.

The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 8-1 in favour of the increase.

Rates had been at 0.1%, a record low, since March last year, when they were cut in response to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. It was the second month in a row that Bank policymakers had surprised the markets.

Economists had...

09.12.2021 - Four-year maximum sentences for visa overstayers

The Nationality and Borders Bill 2021, about which we reported previously here has passed its third reading in the House of Commons and now goes to the House of Lords on 5 January 2022.

The House of Lords will very likely vote to remove some of the more egregious provisions, and it is always possible that the government will accept a few of those suggestions.

One change of the Bill is to make knowingly overstaying a visa punishable by up to four years’ imprisonment (currently the maximum is six months, very rarely prosecuted).

This is being done by adding a new subsection B1A into section 24 o...

30.11.2021 - Priority visa services – for those able to apply using the ID Check app

From 30 November 2021, priority visa (PV) services will be available to EU nationals holding a biometric passport from an EU country (including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland) and who are applying via the UK Immigration: ID Check app available both in and out of the UK for the following routes:

  • Skilled worker
  • Health and Care worker
  • Student

For applications made via the ID Check app, the PV processing time is usually a 5 UK working day service. PV starts on the beginning of the next working day after submission of the visa application (not including weekends) once t...

25.11.2021 - Global Business Mobility visa

The Global Business Mobility visa is set to commence in spring 2022 to provide new solutions for overseas firms transferring staff to the UK.

So how much of this route will be genuinely new and useful rather than consolidating existing options in a rebranding exercise?

Who will be able to use the Global Business Mobility route?

The Global Business Mobility visa will have five pathways for overseas firms to establish a UK footprint or transfer staff to the UK. 

  1. Senior or specialist worker to meet specific business needs
  2. Graduate trainee as part of a training programme
  3. Secondment wo...

08.11.2021 - Autumn Budget 2021: Analysis

The Chancellor’s Autumn Budget speech had a strong sense of industrial strategy and revealed a change in the Treasury’s direction from low taxes and spending restraint to direct intervention in supporting particular industries.

No fundamental reform of the tax system was announced, the focus was clearly on government investment to back further economic growth in the post covid era.

The centrepiece of the Spending Review and Autumn Budget 2021 was the already announced an increase to the rates of dividend tax by 1.25% from 6 April 2022 to help fund the new planned investment in health and socia...

01.11.2021 - New statement of changes for the Pork butchers visa

The latest statement of changes to the Immigration Rules allows pork butchers to come into the UK as Seasonal Workers for up to six months. It came into force at 4pm on 1 November 2021.

As we have reported last month, the government announced that 800 temporary visas would be made available to foreign pork butchers as part of various measures to support the pig industry.

The government confirmed that pork butchers who are recruited as Seasonal Workers must be paid the same minimum salary as they would under Skilled Worker:

The applicant must have a Certificate of Sponsorship for the job they a...

01.11.2021 - Challenge to automatic British citizenship for Northern Irish people thrown out

In Re Ní Chuinneagain [2021] NIQB 79 the High Court in Northern Ireland has thrown out a challenge to automatic British citizenship for people who reject it.

The claimant is from Belfast and regards herself as 100% Irish, from passport to first language.

Section 1(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981 says that she is also a British citizen.

Ms Ní Chuinneagain objects, and refuses her unwanted second nationality, saying that “doing so would represent an acceptance that she was born a British citizen, in addition to having to pay the administrative cost involved”.

Mr Justice Scoffield conclude...

28.10.2021 - Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled the contents of his Budget in the House of Commons 27 October 2021.

Setting out the government's tax and spending plans for the year ahead, Mr Sunak said his plans were focused on the "post-Covid" era and would pave the way for an "economy of higher wages, higher skills, and rising productivity".

Here is a summary of the main points.

State of the economy and public finances

  • Inflation in September was 3.1% and is likely to rise to average 4% over next year, OBR says
  • UK economy forecast to return to pre-Covid levels by 2022
  • Annual growth set to re...

26.10.2021 - Early settlement concession for young people living half their lives in the UK

Some young people born or brought up in the UK without immigration status can now apply for settlement after five years rather than ten. The change in policy comes in a new and very welcome Home Office concession, published on 25 October.

Paragraph 276ADE(1)(v) of the Immigration Rules allows people aged 18-24 inclusive, who have spent half of their life living continuously in the UK, to apply for permission to stay. The catch is that they remain on the immigration system treadmill for a long time.

While most migrants can settle in the UK after five years, young people with permission under th...

19.10.2021 - Can an immigration decision be put on ice during a criminal investigation?

This was the question before the Court of Appeal in R (X and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 1480. The court decided that the answer is “yes”, with some caveats.

Challenge to five-year delay pending fraud investigation

The case concerned a family who applied to extend their permission in the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) route in April 2017. Shortly before they lodged the applications, HM Revenue and Customs launched a criminal investigation into the main applicant, Mr X. He and 12 other people were suspected of being involved in a tax fraud conspiracy.

Mr X was ar...

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