The Migration Advisory Commitee's shortage review process
This page explains the process that the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) follows for reviewing whether occupations should be on the shortage occupation lists. It also explains how to request a review of an occupation's status.
In its spring shortage report 2009, the MAC announced its decision to review all the occupations in the autumn 2008 recommended shortage lists. Following this announcement, the MAC has decided that - subject to continued government agreement - it intends to publish a timetable for subsequent updates and reviews of the shortage occupation lists along with two regular calls for evidence each year.
Autumn reviews
By each autumn, the MAC will have reviewed all occupations on the shortage occupations lists from the previous year. In addition, there will be a full review of all skilled occupations across the whole United Kingdom labour market every two years, starting in autumn 2010 (then 2012, 2014 and so on). Any major changes to the methodology will be normally incorporated during a full review. A call for evidence will be issued in April and will run to mid-July. A list of occupations under review will be published on this website and updated as necessary.
Partial spring reviews
In these reviews the MAC will review select occupations only, and the report will be published on the MAC website only. A call for evidence, including details of which occupations are under review, will be issued in October each year and will close at the end of the following January. This report will not normally contain major changes to the MAC methodology.
Requests for reviews of an occupation that is not on the lists
At any time of year, you can submit a case to the MAC that it should review the status of an occupation. You can find advice about how to do this on the Submitting evidence page.
In exceptional circumstances (where the submission provides good and relevant evidence, it has been received in time, and there is a case for an urgent review), the MAC may fully review the occupation immediately in time for its next report.
In other situations, the MAC will announce in its next report that it intends to review the occupation. This will be the case if:
- the submission has provided good evidence but was received too late to be considered in the current review; or
- the submission has provided partial evidence that needs to be corroborated and further investigated.
In some situations, such as where the MAC has recently reviewed an occupation, or where previous analysis has shown that the occupation is not skilled, the MAC may decline a request to review an occupation.
The MAC intends to update the 'top-down' analysis regularly, as soon as the latest relevant labour market statistics are made available. The MAC's shortage indicators can indicate potential new areas of shortage and areas of decreased shortage pressure. The results of this analysis will be published regularly alongside MAC reports.