Introduction

The Home Office is responsible for most of the legislation that implements immigration policies: Immigration Acts and the Immigration Rules.

Cases decided in the tribunals and courts can affect this legislation. Sometimes, the Government needs to change its laws because a court has judged that they infringe European Union law or human rights law.

At other times, the Government chooses to change its laws because the current legislation does not implement its intended policy, or because it wants to make the system work differently. For example, the Government raised the minimum level of English required of Tier 4 students when it wanted to reduce the number of international students coming to the UK for 12 months or longer. People with lower levels of English had to come as student visitors instead, for a period of six months or 11 months. This meant they were not counted in the net migration figures.

Institutions' policies can be more demanding or less generous than the Home Office's minimum requirements, but they should not set lower standards. This is because failure to meet the minimum requirements can lead to the revocation of a sponsor's Tier 4 licence.