House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee urges immigration policy reform to attract STEM talent
The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has written to the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, and Minister for Science, Lord Vallance of Balham, calling for urgent reforms to the UK's immigration and visa policies to help attract science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent. The letter warns that without changes to the policies, the UK risks missing a critical opportunity to strengthen its research base in science and technology and drive economic growth. The Committee urges the government to address issues such as high visa costs and the immigration system's impact on the fiscal sustainability of universities in its upcoming Immigration White Paper. It also calls for a more pragmatic visa policy, along with flexible funding for universities and research institutions to support key research programmes. The Committee further welcomes the government’s commitment to launch a scheme for recruiting global research talent and recommends that it extend to a wide pool of individual researchers.