The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) has handed over 100 examples of fast-track visa abuse to the Home Office, after home office minister Lord Rooker requested evidence in a recent debate on the work permit system on the BBC’s Today programme.

The PCG also placed a job advertisement requesting applicants experienced in the exact skills listed on the government’s critical shortage list. Over a five-day period, 86 candidates responded to the advertisement – 13 within the first hour.

The government introduced the fast-track visa system to allow companies to import workers with the skills required to fill shortages in the UK. But, according to the PCG, there is no skills shortage and UK contractors are being replaced with cheaper, less-qualified ‘permit’ workers.

Philip Ross, PCG policy adviser, said: “Many of the reports we have received detail how UK contractors are told by clients to train ‘permit’ workers in skills that the workers they have replaced were originally hired for. UK contractors are simply waiting for projects to be advertised and this adds considerable weight to our mounting dossier of evidence that there is no skills shortage in IT workers in the UK.