Scottish Asylum Right to Work Proposal

2. Pilot Design

This paper outlines initial pilot design based on feedback received from stakeholders throughout the engagement process. While consensus was reached within the Working Group on a range of practical and pragmatic parameters, there also remains a number of key areas for exploration and decision prior to operationalisation of the pilot. The design elements below are therefore intended to outline areas where consensus was clear, and identify areas which require further exploration with the UK Government and other partners.

2.1 Pilot scale and geography

As set out earlier in this proposal, the Scottish Government’s vision is that the opportunity to work should be granted to all people seeking asylum across Scotland. While we would support wider system change, for example for all of Scotland being used as a pilot site to test a change in UK Government policy, we recognise the benefits of delivering a proportionate pilot scheme to first test our overarching policy ambition. In this case, this comprises a range of smaller geographical areas within Scotland which contain populations of people seeking asylum, but with different local factors such as employment opportunities, rurality versus urban environments, and differing potential support structures which could be applied in support of any local scheme. In that scenario, the Working Group noted the importance of the pilot taking place across at least one urban and one rural setting in order to generate more varied lessons with regards to delivery in differing localities. It was agreed by the Working Group that Glasgow City Council at a minimum should participate in the pilot, as the location in Scotland with the largest asylum-seeking population. However, it is expected that the pilot will support people living within any agreed pilot areas. People seeking asylum living in Home Office provided accommodation are accommodated on a no-choice basis, and people are not able to choose to relocate.

A rural pilot location was not explicitly agreed, however it was highlighted that additional barriers would need to be considered when establishing rural pilot area boundaries, for example with regards to existing transport links and the distance between housing and employment opportunities. In order to address these challenges, Travel to Work Areas (TTWA) could be considered as a geographical unit within which to operate the pilot. TTWAs are commuter areas that do not necessarily align to local authority boundaries, whereby the population would generally take up employment in a larger town or conurbation nearby, as well as acting as more general ‘activity spaces’ within which people are likely to carry out most of their day-to-day activities, such as accessing public services.

With regards to the scale of the pilot, the number of people who participate needs to be large enough to generate meaningful results through the evaluation process, so that lessons learned will serve as a robust evidence base to inform the future development of asylum right to work policies. It is proposed that people seeking asylum who are accepted onto the pilot should retain their right to work until they receive a decision on their asylum claim, to provide as much stability and continuity as possible, which employers have highlighted can be a key barrier with regards to employment. Additionally, as part of the pilot design, an exit strategy will be developed to support pilot participants.

Areas for further exploration

• The number of participants that can be supported on an initial pilot should be agreed with the UK Government. This will help to determine the number of pilot areas that should be included.

2.2 Eligibility

The Working Group was unanimous that the pilot should take as inclusive an approach as possible - keeping eligibility criteria to a minimum - in order to further build the evidence base regarding the experiences of different cohorts of people seeking asylum. A range of views were expressed by the Working Group and people with lived experience on how quickly someone arriving in the UK would be ready to work. Some felt that it should be granted immediately or after six months, while others felt it would vary depending on each individual’s circumstances.

Our proposal is that the prospective pilot would accept participants once they have been waiting six months or more for a decision on their asylum claim. This threshold aligns to previous Labour Party positioning in the UK Parliament^[5], as well as to wider EU legislation, whereby a Directive was recently agreed to reduce the right to work threshold for people seeking asylum from nine months to six months^[6].

Given there is a requirement for the pilot to be operational within the current UK immigration framework, the Home Office would maintain full responsibility for reviewing and processing asylum claims. An agreement would need to be established at the point of delivery on how suitable pilot participants are identified, and how this data would subsequently be shared with the Scottish Government and other partners as necessary.

2.3 Employment opportunities and partner employers

Recognising the breadth of prior skills and experience which pilot participants might possess, it is proposed that the pilot should be open to all sectors so as not to limit employment prospects.

In reviewing approaches to asylum right to work internationally, the EAG report found that there is no evidence to support limiting employment opportunities to where there are shortages, which was proven to be “ill-conceived with no clear benefits to either the sectors involved or the people seeking asylum themselves”^[7] when trialled in Australia; it has since been scrapped by the Australian Government. As noted earlier in this pilot proposal, reform of this policy is also supported by the MAC, noting that “the original reasoning behind this restriction does not seem to be particularly coherent”.^[8]

The pilot would not seek to offer a direct matching service between participants and employers, in order not to restrict pilot participants to a particular list of job roles; however, the pilot would seek to ensure that prior skills and experiences are recognised using language accessible to the individual and employers. In Scotland there is already a developed process for informally benchmarking skills, experience and qualifications through the National Qualifications Framework.

In order to safeguard pilot participants’ rights and minimise the risk of exploitation, employment opportunities should align with Fair Work principles and the UK legal employment framework, for example the recently announced Employment Rights Bill. A mixture of full and part-time contracts should be encouraged to make the pilot more accessible to those with caring responsibilities or disabilities, while also providing further insight on how these cohorts access employment opportunities.

As the EAG report sets out, the current system is complex and confusing for employers, which can be particularly disincentivising for smaller organisations without a distinct HR function, in addition to increasing the potential for the exploitation of employees. A key role for the Scottish Government in operationalising the pilot would therefore be developing robust and clear guidance to explain both employer and employee roles and responsibilities, which the EAG report suggests could be taken forward in collaboration with trade unions.

Areas for further exploration

• Specific requirements with regards to data collection would be agreed once a prospective pilot model is finalised, and communicated clearly to delivery partners. Any required data gathering would look to minimise bureaucracy as far as possible.