Policy background Fees
The Prime Minister announced in his 21 May 2015 immigration speech that the Government will reform immigration and labour market rules to reduce the demand for skilled workers from overseas. The Act contains provision to collect an immigration skills charge from employers who sponsor non EEA migrants and to make regulations setting the scope and rate charged.
	The Government has considered advice from the Migration Advisory Committee and additional views from employers. Following careful consideration, the Government has announced that an Immigration Skills Charge of £1,000 per migrant per year will be paid by employers who sponsor Tier 2 migrants. The Charge will be collected by the Home Office. A reduced rate of £364 per annum will apply to small businesses and charities as defined within Immigration and Asylum (Fees) Regulations and an exemption will be applied to migrants undertaking occupations skilled to PhD level and graduates switching from Tier 4 to Tier 2.
	The Act amends the legislative framework for passport fees. The Home Office has been lowering the price of passports for a number of years. For example, in April 2014 fees for UK passports for British citizens applying from overseas were reduced by 35%. The Home Office intends to continue to reduce the cost of postal applications for standard passports by delivering further operational improvements. The Home Office's intention is also to improve premium services, which are currently charged at less than the operational cost. The Act will allow a fee to be introduced which will exceed the operational costs of premium services, to subsidise the basic service.
	Finally, the Act amends the legislative framework for civil registration fees. Existing legislation governing the registration of births, deaths and marriages is, in the Government's view, restrictive in terms of the products and services for which fees may be charged. The Registration Service Act 1953 establishes the office of the Registrar General and the General Register Office (GRO). The GRO charges fees on a cost recovery basis for many, but not all, of its services. Free services include corrections of birth or death entries, the re-registration of births and registrations outside the statutory time limit.
	The Act introduces modernised and flexible fee-raising powers in respect of services provided by the Registrar General, superintendent registrars and registrars, enabling fees to be set for a wider range of products and services than is currently possible. The introduction of a modernised funding framework seeks to reduce the burden on the taxpayer for providing registration services by allowing registration services to become increasingly self-sufficient, supporting the superintendent registrars and registrars in their ability to deliver critical services.