Immigration plan limits work of non-EU doctors

Doctors from outside Europe will no longer be able to work in Britain as salaried GPs, under an official plan published today.

The Home Office's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) also said non-European doctors should be barred from working in hospitals except as consultants in specific fields of medicine.

The proposals came as part of a wide-ranging package setting out the job categories which experts believe should be open to skilled workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

MAC chairman Professor David Metcalf said limits should also be placed on foreign teachers, with only science and maths teachers being allowed in.

The committee set up to establish which sectors of the UK job market are short of workers, also said a bar should be imposed on social workers, most skilled construction workers, IT specialists and architects.

Professor Metcalf said: "Don't think we are a soft touch. There are rather more jobs which we have excluded from the list than we have included."

The proposals will now be considered by immigration minister Liam Byrne, and are expected to form the basis of so-called "Tier 2" applications under the new points-based immigration system.

The list also includes skilled chefs - only those earning at least £8.10 per hour - and skilled senior care workers earning at least £8.80 per hour.

It also features vets, construction managers, ballet dancers, ship and hovercraft officers, and skilled sheep shearers.

Additional job shortages in Scotland mean that a number of additional occupations will be allowed to enter the UK, including frozen fish filleters, nurses in elderly units above a certain band and speech and language therapists.