The government has published a new Statement of Changes to the UK Immigration Rules. The main change is to exempt all doctors and nurses from the annual Tier 2 (General) visa limit. The Tier 2 (General) category is the main immigration route for UK employers seeking to recruit non-EEA skilled workers. It is subject to an annual limit of 20,700 places, divided into monthly allocations. The exemption for doctors and nurses is in in response to the particular shortages and pressures currently facing the NHS, and the fact that the visa limit has been significantly oversubscribed in each month since December 2017 (with the result that applications submitted have been refused where applicants were to be paid less than £55,000 unless they were PhD level roles, a role listed on the Shortage Occupation List or were prioritised for other reasons). From a private sector employer’s perspective, this new exemption for doctors and nurses will now free up hundreds of places within the visa limit for applications for restricted certificates of sponsorship for other skilled occupations, as NHS workers currently make up about 40% of all restricted certificate of sponsorship applications. It should also lead to a drop in the salary level currently required to secure a restricted certificate of sponsorship.

Other changes to Tier 2 (General) include:

• Requiring Tier 2 migrants applying for settlement, who have been absent from work on maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave, to provide evidence of the birth or adoption
• A provision preventing Tier 2 migrants from holding more than 10% of shares in their sponsor indirectly (as well as directly), such as via another corporate entity.

The changes will come into effect on 6 July 2018.

In addition, from 1 July 2018, Croatian nationals no longer need to apply for worker authorisation in order to work in the UK.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has confirmed that all regulated law firms will be required to publish information on the prices that they charge, and what these cover, across a range of services, including the pursuit (for members of the public) and the defence (for small businesses) of claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal in employment tribunal. They will also have to display a new digital badge on their website showing the protections their regulated status gives clients. This comes as new research suggests that 85% of people want information on price, protections and quality of service before choosing a legal services provider. The two most important factors in choosing a provider are reputation followed by price.

The reforms are designed to improve public access to legal services by making information on price, protections and services more easily available. However, although it means that businesses will be able to find clear information on price before they decide to instruct a solicitor to defend them in the employment tribunal, enabling them to shop around online for the best price, its restriction to claims for unfair and wrongful dismissal means that the online pricing information is going to be of limited use in many cases. On average, a tribunal claim currently contains 1.6 jurisdictional complaints per claim, e.g. where a claim cites both unfair dismissal and sex discrimination, and of the total of 40,412 jurisdictional complaints submitted to employment tribunal in January to March 2018, only 4,749 were for unfair dismissal and 3,169 were for breach of contract, which includes (but isn’t limited to) wrongful dismissal. There will be no obligation on law firms to display their pricing information in relation to other types of claim, e.g. claims for discrimination, equal pay, holiday pay, unauthorised deductions from wages, etc. Similarly, if a claim cites two jurisdictions, such as unfair dismissal and disability discrimination, the pricing information will not reflect defending the discrimination part of the claim.

The reforms are to be submitted to the Legal Services Board for formal approval over the coming months. Subject to this, the changes are expected to be implemented on a phased basis from December 2018 onwards.

The maternity allowance is a financial benefit for pregnant women who are self-employed, who are working but do not qualify for statutory maternity pay (SMP) or who have recently stopped working. The maternity allowance is paid directly by the Department for Work and Pensions for up to 39 weeks for qualifying applicants. An application must be made for the maternity allowance using the Department for Work and Pensions – Maternity Allowance claim form (MA1).

The amount of maternity allowance payable (if any) depends on eligibility. It can range from £145.18 a week or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is less) for 39 weeks, £27 a week for 39 weeks or £27 a week for 14 weeks.

If you are self-employed you must have paid Class 2 National Insurance for at least 13 of the 66 weeks before your baby is due in order to get the full amount of maternity allowance. If you haven’t paid Class 2 National Insurance, you will receive just £27 a week for 39 weeks assuming all the other eligibility conditions are met. You may be able to make extra National Insurance payments to qualify for the higher rate. 

If you are an employee (and don’t qualify for the SMP) you may be able to get the maternity allowance if in the 66 weeks before your baby’s due you were:

• Employed for at least 26 weeks;
• Earning £30 or more a week for at least 13 of those weeks – they don’t have to be together.

SMP on the other hand is a weekly payment payable to qualifying employees by their employer at:

• 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings (AWE) for the first 6 weeks with no upper limit;
• £145.18 (for 2018-19) or 90% of their AWE (whichever is lower) for the remaining 33 weeks.

Your employer may also offer further additional benefits which includes higher maternity payments, however this is at their discretion and is not legally required.

The Time Off for Public Duties Order 2018 has been laid before Parliament and will come into force on 1 October 2018. The Order amends section 50 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 so as to grant unpaid time off work to four groups of volunteers in the criminal justice system, who all monitor conditions of those in custody. Currently, employers are not obliged to grant time off work to these volunteers so that they can perform their public duties.

The four groups of volunteers are:

• Independent prison monitors in Scotland appointed under the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989 (the equivalent body for England and Wales is already included in the time off work provisions in section 50)
• A panel of lay observers appointed under the Criminal Justice Act 1991 – these are volunteers who monitor conditions for prisoners under escort and in court custody (lay observers only exist in England and Wales and they do not exist or operate in Scotland)
• Visiting Committees for the immigration and detention estate appointed under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 for England, Wales and Scotland – these are commonly referred to as Independent Monitoring Boards and they consist of volunteers who monitor the immigration detention estate
• Visiting Committees appointed by the Secretary of State for short-term holding facilities under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.