28,000 ? brought in via ICTs

[ookook]

Quite!

The idea, in its narrowest sense, is to allow a multinational to transfer say a skilled engineer that understands their widget-making machine from his normal place of work into the UK to install a machine over here and train people how to use it, where such work will take more than a few days. Obvioulsy there's a bit of a grey area, but the essentials are "same company", "highly skilled" and "short term" (if you want them here permanently they'll need an HSMP visa). I would venture none of the 20-odd thousand coders currently screwing up BT's output fit that category in the slightest.

I feel that pain on a daily basis.... couldn't agree more

[Iron Condor]

The IT industry in the UK has been in decline since 2001.

Government is now joining the offshoring brigade.
Probably a few ICTs roaming the corridors of Whitehall as we speak.

After years of resistance to offshoring, the need to slash billions of pounds from public spending could see Whitehall looking to send IT work abroad.

While offshoring is commonplace in the private sector, the public sector has so far shied away from the practice - in part due to wariness of a backlash against sending jobs overseas - even though its supporters insist it can significantly reduce the cost of IT projects.

Indication of a possible shift in public bodies' attitudes to offshoring came last week, however, as the British Council announced that IT jobs could move to India.

It's not the only such hint. Recently, senior civil servants in the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Justice both told silicon.com that they are open to offshoring work such as software development.

[HairyArsedBloke]

The IT industry in the UK has been in decline since 2001.

Government is now joining the offshoring brigade.
Probably a few ICTs roaming the corridors of Whitehall as we speak.

All 'savings' should be deducted from the foreign aid budget in full.

[DimPrawn]

It's good news for some businesses. Sales are booming.

http://www.cashandcarrion.co.uk/fram...%20Tee%20White

[mrdonuts]

http://www.silverlinktechnologies.com/index.php

[DimPrawn]

The IT industry in the UK has been in decline since 2001.

Government is now joining the offshoring brigade.
Probably a few ICTs roaming the corridors of Whitehall as we speak.

Buy an India fund and put all your money into it. If the offshoring continues to boom you are quids in, if it falls flat on it's arse, you pick up a nice contract in the UK and earn it all back again. Win win.

E.g. http://uk.moneycentral.msn.com/inves...ol=GB%3A083699

[TimberWolf]

Buy an India fund and put all your money into it. If the offshoring continues to boom you are quids in, if it falls flat on it's arse, you pick up a nice contract in the UK and earn it all back again. Win win.

E.g. http://uk.moneycentral.msn.com/inves...ol=GB%3A083699

Are those shares and can you invest in them using a regular on-line banking share dealing service?

[DimPrawn]

Are those shares and can you invest in them using a regular on-line banking share dealing service?

Yes. You can use Fidelity fund supermarket or self trade, etc. They are managed funds not shares.

[Sean Key]

28,000 was last year alone

Assuming that they do all go home at the end of two years then it would look like around 50,000 are here at the moment? Having said that, the 28,000 is from 2008, so that 28,000 would pre-date BT and Lloyds outsourcing I imagine. If this loophole isn't closed off sharpish there could be a sharp increase.

For the record I think the PCG have been doing well more recently fighting this, there is some detailed input from them into the latest Home Office Select Committee report into Migration. From what I've read of that it looks like the Migration Advisory Committee has been asked to consider closing down or modifying the ICT route as a result of that.

The petition remains here (now with >140 signatures) if anyone else feels like signing up.

I'm chasing 500 so any help with spreading the word woild be really appreciated.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Abolish-ICTs/