The government introduced the cap of 20,700 on non-EEA migrant workers in April 2011. Following its introduction, the government later considered lowering the migrant worker cap following a low demand for Tier 2 visas.

The government has now announced that the annual limit for highly skilled workers will remain at 20,700 for the next two years, until April 2014. This announcement follows the Migration Advisory Committee's (MAC) report on the limit on Tier 2 (General) for 2012/13 and associated policies.

The government also announced that the skill level required by migrants seeking to work in the UK will increase. The number of middle-management jobs such as IT technicians and security managers will no longer be available to migrant workers. However, highly-skilled occupations such as architects, teachers or chemical engineers will still be available. In addition, the rules for employers advertising highly paid and PhD jobs will be relaxed.

Full details of the changes can be found on the Home Office website here.