Wealth & Finance International 42 Shaping UK Government Policy wC’s services, that are provided to over 20,000 clients, can broadly be described as follows: • Legal - services includes corporate and banking, cyber security and data protection, dispute resolution, employment, entity governance & compliance, immigration, international business reorganisations, IPIT, pension, public sector and real estate. • Tax - corporate tax advisory, transfer pricing, restructuring, indi- rect tax, finance and treasury, tax investigations, private tax and human resources tax. Human resources are part of tax services and includes areas such as global mobility, reward, human capital effectiveness and benchmarking, as well as many others. • Assurance - provides assurance services for financial perfor- mance and operations. The main areas of focus include statutory, regulatory and internal audit, treasury services, accounting and compliance advice. • Consulting - includes consulting, and sustainability and climate change services. • Deals - includes business recovery services, corporate finance, forensic services and transaction services. PricewaterhouseCoopers was formed in July 1998 and was constitut- ed from the merger of two of the world’s most prominent professional services organisations: Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand. Each of the legacy firms had a proud history of over 100 years, serving clients around the world since 1894. There are over 170,000 experts in the PwC network located in 221 countries, of which, 15,000 are in the UK. PwC has been providing immigration services since the mid-1990s and continues to be ranked as the number 1 provider of Global immigration services by Chambers & Partners. The 2016 ALM Intelligence report rated PwC as Vanguard Leader for global mobility services. We were also listed as ‘Best in Class’ for Strategic Planning capabilities. We have immigration teams in 169 countries, with our own PwC immigration practices in 154 of these locations, making us the largest in-house network of immigration specialists. I am the Legal Markets Leader & Head of Global Immigration. Indeed, I am regarded as the expert’s expert on UK immigration and have been heavily involved in shaping UK government policy on the points-based immigration system and have worked collaboratively with the Home Office to devise the Tier 2 compliance audit concept. As a prominent media commentator and regular party conference speaker on global immigration issues, I have extensive expertise in global immigration governance and risk management for international businesses. I have also led a number of high-profile crisis management projects from an immigration standpoint, including the Arab Spring and Algeria Crisis. In the last 12 months, we have assisted with over 12,000 individual immigration applications across all categories including points-based system categories (Tiers 1, 2, 4 and 5), dependants of British and EEA nationals, ancestry, business and general visitors. We also provide immigration consultancy services, strategic management of complex immigration scenarios, government liaison, audits and risk reviews. PwC certainly plays a key role in many committees and associations who advise governments on immigration policy. Our approach to gov- ernment relations is very different from many of our competitors. We are the ‘voice of business’ to the UK government and we represent our clients through our strong relationships. Our global network organises a number of well attended local events to bring our clients and govern- ments together. From an immigration perspective, PwC has an unrivalled reputation for helping our clients remain compliant, minimise risks and prepare for legislative changes. For example, in the UK, we can help with any Sponsor Licence renewals, ensuring our clients will be in the strongest possible position to meet UKVI’s strict requirements and successfully navigate a compliance audit. PwC’s immigration team is supported by specialists across the firm. We work with global mobility, employment law, and HR specialists which gives us the ability to provide holistic immigration advice. In addition, we have a deep understanding of how industry events and trends affect the global mobility function. We can help plan for predicted market trends, and using our government liaison capabilities, we can help put clients in the best position in their strategically important locations. Company: PwC Name: Julia Onslow-Cole Email:
[email protected] P 1701WF07