In a setback to Highly Skilled Employees from India seeking permanent residency, Britain has rejected recommendations of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, saying rules changes are required to ensure that the immigration system continues to meet Britain's needs.

Denying that rules changes were applied retrospectively, a spokesman of the Home Office said, "The government is committed to managing the numbers of foreign workers entering the UK in the national interest."

He said: "We made the changes to the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme because our analysis of the way HSMP worked in practice prior to the changes showed that the previous test for extensions of leave was not sufficiently rigorous to select those migrants who were making the greatest economic contribution to the UK. Some were simply not doing highly skilled work."

"The change to the qualifying period for settlement -- for all employment categories -- was made because the government believes that permanent migration must also be a journey towards being as socially integrated as possible. The move to five years brings us into line with the European norm for these purposes," the spokesman said.

"We do not accept the JCHR's recommendations. We put in place substantial transitional arrangements to enable those who were making a skilled contribution to the UK to remain here and an individual's human rights are protected through the appeals process.

"Nor do we accept that the Rules changes were applied retrospectively. Existing grants of leave were unaffected and applications for leave can only be assessed under the rules that are in force at the time of application," he said.