An influential Parliamentary Committee has found that there is 'room for improvement' in the Government's immigration system, particularly with intra-company transfers.

Intra-company transfers (ICTs) have long been a subject of contention, as large firms used the system to transfer workers into the UK, often on significantly reduced salaries than their UK counterparts and bypass the normal immigration controls.

The Public Accounts Committee has recently published its report into the management of the work routes of the points based system for immigration and made specific reference to IT workers who are brought into the country at a time when UK resident IT workers are having difficulty finding work.

The UK Border Agency came in for particular criticism for not doing more to ensure that workers leave when their visas expire, putting a figure of more than 180,000 people who have overstayed without permission.

Chair of the Committee, Margaret Hodge MP, said: "The Points Based System, introduced to manage economic migration from countries outside the EEA, is better than the visa system it replaced. But there is still a good deal of room for improvement.

We are concerned at the lack of control of workers entering Britain through the intra-company transfer system. This allows multinationals to transfer their workers to the UK and is not covered by the immigration cap. Most workers enter through this route and, for instance, tens of thousands of IT workers have been brought in through intra-company transfers at a time when UK residents with IT skills are struggling to find work."

NASSCOM understands that there is huge pressure on the UK Government to act on ICT visa category. NASSCOM would soon write to Immigration Minister re-iterating importance of ICT visa for the industry and why it should not be tampered with.