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The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has claimed that recent Government reforms to the points based immigration system might actually lead to an increase in the number of non-EU workers arriving in the UK via the intra-company transfer system.

Alan Johnson, Home Secretary, recently said that the immigration changes which were announced in August 2009 would "ensure that businesses can recruit the skilled foreign workers that the economy needs, but not at the expense of British workers, nor as a cheaper alternative to investing in the skills of the existing workforce."

Massive surge in number of IT work permits

However, APSCo says that there is is increasing evidence that Indian outsourcing companies are abusing intra-company transfers to undercut UK software and service companies. Figures obtained by APSCo show that three times as many non-EU IT workers came to the UK in 2008 through intra-company transfers than during the dot com boom.

According to data obtained under the Freedom of Information act 29,240 non-EU IT workers came into the UK in 2008 on intra-company transfers. This is more than double the number (14,255) of non-EU workers coming into the UK to work in all the other professional service sectors combined.

Now graduates will be eligible for ICTs

One of the changes referred to by the Home Secretary will see graduates become eligible for intra-company transfers (ICTs) for the first time. ICTs are a type of work permit that allows companies to transfer workers from overseas offices without having to advertise vacancies in the UK first.

APSCo points out that under the existing rules it is extremely unlikely that any graduate would accumulate enough points to be eligible for an ICT work permit.

Extending qualifying period "unlikely to have much impact"

The Government also plans to increase the length of time which workers must be in continuous employment with the same company from six months to 12 months before being eligible for ICTs, but APSCo says this measure will not make it significantly harder to bring non-EU IT workers into the UK.

Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo, said: "These changes will do very little to slow the influx of non-EU IT workers coming to the UK. In fact, by making it possible for companies to bring graduates in on intra-company transfers, we could see more foreign workers coming to the UK than would have been the case had the Government done nothing at all!"

"Extending the qualifying period for intra-company transfers from six months to 12 months is unlikely to have much impact. It would only exclude a very small percentage of the workforce of a large IT outsourcing company and there is seldom much business benefit to transferring workers with less than six months employment anyway."