CJ McKinney

The Commons Library is recruiting a housing policy researcher!

As ever: highly recommended workplace, great people, interesting work, etc etc. Apply!

housesofparliament.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

New episode of the TDTM podcast just dropped, featuring migration statistics oracle and all-round inspiration Madeleine Sumption from Oxford's @migobs.bsky.social 🔊

Listen to the full episode now on Spotify ⬇️ or Apple Podcasts

open.spotify.com/episode/2Buv...

Council clinches deal on EU law about returns of illegally staying third-country nationals The Council reached its position on a regulation for a common European returns system.

"Today’s agreement will make it possible for both the European Union and one or more member states to make an arrangement or agreement with a third country on return hubs" www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

The Home Office consultation says its proposal for tougher English language tests is not up for discussion, but the department also won’t confirm (below) whether they will definitely apply to Hongkongers until the consultation has finished.

Interesting exercise, suggesting that emigration of British citizens from the UK hasn’t increased.

UK universities restricting recruitment of Bangladeshi and Pakistani students At least nine higher education institutions have stopped applications due to tougher Home Office rules and concerns over visa abuse

UK universities restricting recruitment of Bangladeshi and Pakistani students in order to meet new Home Office requirements on visa refusals and asylum claims by students giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

"We need to come to terms with the fact that for many years everybody thought the channel was a big barrier to getting to the UK. Now, everybody realises that it is not, and that genie is not going back in the bottle" committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence...

The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act has been given Royal Assent - www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/3...

Which means that the Safety of Rwanda Act has been repealed, as have the elements of the Illegal Migration Act that effectively banned asylum claims being processed

No idea, to be honest! I would have assumed attrition rather than reassignment.

France to start intercepting small boats in the Channel after pressure from UK The change in policy comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wrote to President Emmanuel Macron.

“French security forces will be allowed to stop the small boats at sea, but only before they've picked up their passengers, the maritime police force has confirmed to the BBC” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

That’s true according to the transparency data, although over the same period caseworking output/productivity is up and the backlog is down (quality of decisions another matter obviously).

More non-EU citizens arrived to seek asylum (96,000) than on a work visa (86,000) from June 2024 to June 2025, the Office for National Statistics thinks. That's excluding the 'dependants' of work visa holders.

Non-EU migration continues to add hundreds of thousands a year to the population (subject to potential future emigration), outweighing negative net migration of EU and British citizens.

Net migration (immigration minus emigration) down to about 200,000 in the 12 months to June 2025, latest provisional estimates suggest: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula.... The exact numbers are invariably wrong, but at least illustrate the general trend.

Return of the Spider Woman: Lady Hale tours Britain’s courts With the Law on Our Side is a pleasingly old-fashioned look at our legal system by the former president of the Supreme Court

While I was offline I reviewed Baroness Hale of Richmond's newest book. It's actually very good! I'm going soft. Free link here @ www.thetimes.com/article/6dd6...

Nearly all of them require English language at some point in the process (whether at entry, midway or final), with refugees being the most significant exception. I don't think lack of English skills is a significant problem, given that it's a global language - different if it were Danish.

International student levy on British universities confirmed in Budget 2025 documents www.gov.uk/government/p...

60,000 responses so far to the public consultation on changes to permanent residence rules, minister reports hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025...

The new spin is to raise the bar for what counts as adequate media coverage: “Why isn’t this front page news everywhere?!?”

Irish citizens are just exempt. Irish residents are exempt if entering the UK from ROI, as below. The exemptions cover both NI and GB, and there is no enforcement on ROI-NI crossings anyway.

Are we flying blind on the economy? with Jonathan Portes

I'm thrilled to announce that Talk Data to Me now has a podcast.

My first guest is Jonathan Portes, Professor of Economics at Kings, who talked to me about recent problems with UK economic data & budget challenges for the Chancellor.

Available to listen now 🔊

open.spotify.com/episode/6Txz...

Irish citizens and residents are exempt. Otherwise people are supposed to get one before entering the UK from Ireland.

No permission, no travel: UK set to enforce ETA scheme From February 2026, visitors will not be able to travel to the UK without advance permission.

The grace period for letting people travel to the UK without an electronic travel authorisation - never really advertised in writing - ends on 25 February 2026, Home Office announces www.gov.uk/government/n...

"Of the United Kingdom’s 100 fastest-growing companies, 54 have a foreign-born founder or co-founder" www.tenentrepreneurs.org/job-creators...

Quite the correction by the Telegraph. The publication in question is @freemovement.bsky.social

That is also my reading - hard lines if you are RQF3-5 but do earn over 50k as it’s an extra five years to ILR based purely on skill classification.

In terms of how defined, consultation question 6 says that public service occupations are “health and education occupations where going rates are based on national pay scales”. But only RQF6+ within that, as you say.

Biggest overhaul of legal migration model in 50 years announced Illegal migrants and arrivals reliant on benefits face waiting between 20 and 30 years to settle – the toughest in Europe.

Home Office press release: www.gov.uk/government/n...

Home Secretary says in the foreword: "we propose to apply these changes to everyone in the country today who has not already received indefinite leave to remain... as soon as our immigration rules have changed".

Earned settlement The government is consulting on how the current settlement system should be reformed and how those reforms should be implemented.

The UK government's proposals on changes to settlement (indefinite leave to remain) rules have now been published in a consultation paper, ahead of a statement from the Home Secretary to MPs shortly www.gov.uk/government/c...