Fears have arisen that foreign IT workers are taking mid-level IT roles in the UK over skilled UK professionals.

The Home Office has said that UK work permits issued to foreign IT staff rose 14% in 2007 from 2006 with Indian applications making up approximately 83% of all approved permits.

Indian IT workers filled roles including analyst programmers, software engineers and system analysts numbered 31,765 (83%) of all approved applications in 2007 and 26,835 (79%) in 2006.

Under Home Office rules, companies recruiting staff from abroad must prove that there are no suitably qualified or experienced resident workers available in the UK first to get a permit. However, critics argue that this system is open to abuse using a process called intra-company transfers.