December 2024 Migration Advisory Committee meeting minutes
Updated 14 July 2025
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Migration Advisory Committee
2nd Floor, Peel Building NE
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF
182nd meeting of Migration Action Committee: minutes
Friday 13th December 20224 10:30 - 13:00
In-person conference
Attending
Professor Brian Bell (Chair)
Professor Dina Kiwan
Professor Sergi Pardos-Prado
Dr Madeleine Sumption
Professor Jo Swaffield
Claire Smith (Home Office)
Holly White
MAC Secretariat
Agenda item 1 – Welcome and introductions
Professor Bell opened the meeting and welcomed the attendees.
Agenda item 2 – Home Office, MAC Secretariat and MAC updates
Claire Smith gave an update on the new Immigration White Paper, which was announced by the Prime Minister.
Holly White gave a progress update on the imminent publication of the 2024 MAC Annual Report, the current IT/Engineering commission and the Family Visa Income Requirements commission. She gave an update about additional resourcing for the Secretariat.
Professor Bell gave an update on recent meetings with Scottish and Welsh Government, the Home Office Second Permanent Secretary, and a future meeting with the Immigration Minister.
Agenda item 3 – Net migration briefing paper
The Committee Chair gave an overview of planned work analysing net migration.
Agenda item 4 – New approach to Committee papers
A member of the Secretariat gave an overview of proposed changes to the way the MAC Secretariat will support the Committee in the context of improvements to current ways of working and expanded Secretariat resources in 2025. The Committee gave feedback on the proposed changes.
 Agenda item 5 – Economic wellbeing and Family life
A member of the Secretariat gave an update on the concepts of economic wellbeing and family life considerations within the family visa income requirements commission. The Committee was asked their view on how these terms should be defined and considered within the future report draft, and availability of supporting data.
Agenda item 6 – Analysis of different methods for setting the Minimum Income Requirement
A member of the Secretariat laid out the potential format of the relevant chapter of the upcoming family visa financial requirements commission report, and options for setting the MIR.
Agenda item 7 – IT/engineering review: data and focus group findings
A member of the Secretariat gave an update on the statistical information available on international recruitment in the IT/Engineering sectors. The Committee discussed potential areas for further statistical analysis.
The Committee also had a discussion of some of the key findings from a recent series of MAC-led focus groups held with stakeholders operating in the IT/engineering sectors.
Agenda item 8 – AOB
None.