New rules on recruiting workers

New rules on immigration will see skilled ballet dancers and sheep shearers recruited from outside the European Union, while their fellow countrymen and women in occupations such as care home workers, doctors and secondary school teachers will no longer be eligible to apply.

The points-based immigration system, which is to come into force in November, is designed to cut the level of skilled migration to Britain from outside Europe by between 30,000 and 70,000 people a year, and reduces the number of skilled jobs in Britain open to non-EU migrants from 1 million to 700,000.

The provisional list of shortage occupations was published yesterday by the Home Office's migration advisory committee.