12 November 2008. The Government confirmed that chefs, cooks, nurses, social carers, care assistants and home carers from outside the European Union will be allowed to work in the UK, despite tougher restrictions on immigration, which come in later this month.

Chefs and care workers were excluded from the previous shortage list published by the Migration Advisory Committee in September after evidence backing up the shortage was not submitted in time.

All types of social worker are needed. As are skilled work riders - the people who train and exercise racehorses.

There are no IT jobs listed as having shortages. But there are shortages of civil engineers, physicists, geologists and meteorologists as well as biochemists, pharmacists and radiographers.

Skilled ballet dancers are also welcome to apply for work permits as are ship and hovercraft officers.

There are shortages of managers in construction and quantity surveyors.

The only teachers the UK is short of are secondary school maths and science teachers. Scotland needs speech and language therapists at all levels.

The Shortage Occupation List sets out those jobs for which there are not enough resident workers, and it will be updated by March 2009. The list will be used as part of the skilled worker tier (Tier 2) of the Australian-style points system, which will be launched on 27 November.

The definition of “skilled” staff is based on earnings. The Migration Advisory Committee decided to use pay as a proxy for skill.

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