Since January 2021 nearly 22,000 first-time applications and renewal applications have been received by the Labour Market Access Unit of my Department and nearly 20,000 have been granted.
With effect from 9 February 2021, the waiting period to be granted labour market access for international protection applicants was reduced from 9 months to 6 months. The validity of the permission was also extended to 12 months from the date of issue. The permission may be renewed until a final decision is made on the person's international protection application.
Applicants are eligible to apply if:
• They are an international protection applicant; and
• They have waited at least 5 months from their “Application Received” date for their first instance recommendation; and
• They are cooperating with the international protection process – delays in receiving a recommendation must not be attributable to the applicant.
Following that, a person will be issued a permission for labour market access if, at 6 months, they have not yet received a first instance recommendation.
The granting of a labour market access permission does not necessarily confirm that the applicant has found employment. In total, since 2021 over 4,160 separate individuals have returned at least one LMA5 form, which records that they had found employment at some point over that time. However, please note these forms are not always returned to the Department. Accordingly, it is not possible using Departmental records to set out the percentage of international protection applicants that have achieved employment status, or the number of such persons who are awaiting a decision. I would not that where a person is granted a refugee status they no longer require a Labour Market Access permission and instead are issued with a Stamp 4 immigration permission.
Data on total number of applications received and first permits and renewed permissions processed since 2021 is detailed below.
|
|
Applications Received (First & Renewal)
|
Applications Granted (First & Renewal)
|
|
2021
|
5080
|
4776
|
|
2022
|
9098
|
6383
|
|
2023
|
7806
|
8832
|
Data on the number of LMA5 forms returned is detailed below.
|
Year
|
Number of LMA5 Forms Returned
|
|
2021
|
1214
|
|
2022
|
1311
|
|
2023*
|
1641
|
*To June 2023. Applications from July are currently being processed.
Please note all data provided is correct at the time of issue and may be subject to data cleansing.
