HOT TOPIC


Sajid Javid pledged to take “a fresh look” at the immigration system that limits the number of skilled workers from outside the European Economic Area able to take up job offers in the UK. Then, within a fortnight, Prime Minister Theresa May - the principal architect of the Tier 2 (General) visa system that limits the number of talented foreign workers able to enter Britain to 20,700 a year – announced that incoming doctors and nurses would no longer be counted in the annual quota. It was not just the National Health


T


Service that cheered the announcement. Because health professionals take up more than a third of the Tier 2 quota each year, their sudden and unexpected exclusion from the annual cap meant that everyone from tech companies to the financial sector, education institutions to manufacturers got about 7,000 more opportunities to bring in more of the talented individuals from outside the EEA that they so desperately need.


Skills shortages The UK’s escalating skills shortage


has been exacerbated by an exodus of EU workers returning home because of Brexit, and a decline in the number arriving from continental Europe for the same reason. As a result, employers have been looking further afield for the skills they need, yet the stark fact is that, between December and May, an unprecedented total of 10,187 of 18,517 Tier 2 applications were rejected by the Home Office because the monthly visa quota had been repeatedly over-subscribed. Protests from British industry bodies


over the situation found echoes elsewhere. “Indian engineers, IT professionals, doctors and teachers are among 6,080 skilled workers holding a UK job offer who were denied visas to the UK since December 2017, indicating that Indians are likely to be the hardest hit by the country’s annual visa cap,” the Times of India reported in May, citing figures from the Office for National Statistics indicating that Indian nationals accounted for 57 per cent of Tier 2 visas granted. Such a statistic could explain why


the UK visa system remains a source of strain between London and New Delhi. Indeed, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the UK in the spring,


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wo surprising things happened in June: first, just weeks after taking office, Home Secretary


LONDON AI GROWTH OUTPACING EUROPEAN


RIVALS


London has become the artificial intelligence growth capital


of


Europe, with twice as many AI companies as closest rivals Paris and Berlin combined, according to a new report. The report, commissioned by the


Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and published at the start of London Tech Week, maps London’s AI ecosystem for the first time and highlights its growing importance to the economy. Produced by AI advice platform CognitionX, the report “will help to uncover the opportunities to unlock innovation and investment in London in order to maximise the economic impact of AI on the city, and to support the mayor’s ambition to make London a world-leading Smart City.” Key findings in the report,


entitled London: The AI Growth Capital of Europe include: London is home to 758 AI companies – double the total of Paris and Berlin combined. They specialise in more than 30 industries with particular strengths in insurance, finance and law. Some 645 of these companies have headquarters in the capital. Investment raised by London’s AI companies grew by more than 50 per cent in 2017, reaching over £200 million. This represented approximately 10 per cent of the record £2.45 billion raised by London’s technology firms last year. 43 per cent of London’s AI suppliers have at least one non-UK founder and 32 per cent have at least one founder who are from black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds. A quarter of London’s AI suppliers have at least one female founder, compared to just 17 per cent of global start-ups.


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