Trade Agreements: India
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the (a) mobility provisions and (b) Double Contributions Convention in the UK–India trade deal on UK sectors facing skills shortages; and if he will publish any (i) modelling and (ii) assumptions.
Answered by Mr Douglas Alexander
The UK–India trade deal includes mobility provisions that support short-term business mobility for highly skilled professionals. These provisions do not affect the UK’s points-based immigration system and are not expected to add to net migration in the long term.
The Double Contributions Convention (DCC) that the UK is negotiating with India will be a standard reciprocal social security agreement, similar to those the UK has covering 22 countries and the European Union. The DCC will not make it cheaper to hire Indian workers and nothing in the agreement will change our immigration regime.
Modelling and assumptions related to the DCC are not included in the FTA’s Impact Assessment, as the DCC is a separate treaty. The Office for Budget Responsibility will certify the impact of the trade deal including the Double Contributions Convention in the usual way at a fiscal event once the DCC is finalised and ratified.
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