The government is poised to accept new regulations that could restrict the movement of IT support as well as offshoring.

IT Pro highlighted the importance of the proposed plans by the UK borders agency's migration advisory committee which would test non-EU immigrant potential in relation to qualifications and earnings.

Clive Longbottom of Quocirca, an IT analyst firm, told IT Pro that end-user organisations were unlikely to feel the impact of the legislation as there were sufficient skills within the EU in the short-term.

He added that those feeling the pinch most would be Indian outsourcers "who, having had success through offering labour arbitrage at a more competitive price than European counterparts, have more recently been bringing Indian business specialists over to the UK for project work".

It was also revealed earlier this month that the majority of IT workers interviewed by Cyber-Ark, if fired, would be willing to steal corporate secrets or information.

More than half of small businesses (53%) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support, London based Connect conducted the research in 2007.