Government visa changes lost sight of risk of exploitation of migrant workers, PAC report finds
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- Response to tackling exploitation slow and ineffective as skilled
worker visas inquiry further warns govt doesn't know whether or not
people are leaving UK after visas expire Changes to visas by
the Home Office failed to properly consider the risks of
non-compliance with visa rules and exploitation of migrant workers.
In a report on the skilled worker visa route, which was opened up
to help the social care sector during the pandemic, the Public
Accounts Committee...Request free trial
- Response to tackling exploitation slow and ineffective as skilled worker visas inquiry further warns govt doesn't know whether or not people are leaving UK after visas expire Changes to visas by the Home Office failed to properly consider the risks of non-compliance with visa rules and exploitation of migrant workers. In a report on the skilled worker visa route, which was opened up to help the social care sector during the pandemic, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is not convinced by the Home Office's approach to meeting its responsibility for preventing modern slavery, with separate areas of weakness around whether people are complying with the terms of their visas. The Skilled Worker visa system is based on a sponsorship model where a migrant's right to remain in the UK is dependent on their employer. This reliance makes migrant workers vulnerable to exploitation. There is widespread evidence of workers suffering debt bondage, working excessive hours and exploitative conditions, with multiple organisations providing written evidence to the PAC's inquiry highlighting the problems in the current system. When the Home Office expanded the visa route in 2022, it identified evidence of exploitation of migrant care workers but was initially slow to respond. The PAC's report notes it does not know how many people with skilled worker visas had been referred as potential victims of modern slavery. It is also not clear whether arrangements to safeguard care workers whose employers' sponsor licence has been revoked are working effectively. Sufficient action has not been taken to prevent exploitation in applicants' home countries and identify bogus agents overseas who charge applicants unnecessary fees or claim to be able to find them work in the UK. The report recommends that the Home Office work across government to establish an agreed response to tackling exploitation. The PAC has further found that the Home Office does not understand the extent to which people are complying with the terms of their visa and leaving the UK when they should. Neither does it understand, the report finds, whether those who have lost their sponsorship are taken on by other sponsors or what happens to people at the end of their visa. The Home Office has not analysed exit checks since the route was introduced, and does not know what proportion of people return to their home country after their visa has expired, and how many may be working illegally in the UK. The PAC is calling on government to fully assess how it tackles non-compliance, including what measures are in place or will be put in place to record when people leave the country. The report notes government's recent announcement ending the overseas recruitment of care workers, as part of efforts to reduce net migration. The PAC is concerned about the potential impacts of this decision for the care sector in light of expected increasing demand in the next decade. The forthcoming NHS 10-year plan could address the lack of parity in pay and conditions between the NHS and social care, making it easier to recruit more domestic workers in this sector. The report asks for an update on how domestic workforce plans are being used to help address skill shortages. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Government moved swiftly to open up the visa system to help the social care system cope during the pandemic. From when the government opened the Skilled Worker visa route in December 2020 up to the end of 2024, 1.18m people applied to enter the UK. Our report finds that this speed came at a painfully high cost – to the safety of workers from the depredations of labour market abuses, and the integrity of the system from people not following the rules. There has long been mounting evidence of serious issues with the system, laid bare once again in our inquiry. And yet basic information, such as how many people on skilled worker visas have been modern slavery victims, and whether people leave the UK after their visas expire, seems to still not have been gathered by government. “Further changes are now underway in this system, with an end to the overseas recruitment of care workers. Without effective cross-government working, there is a risk that these changes will exacerbate challenges for the care sector. Government now needs to develop a deeper understanding of the role that immigration plays in sector workforce strategies, as well as how domestic workforce plans will help address skills shortages. Government no longer has the excuse of the global crisis caused by the pandemic if it operates this system on the fly, and without due care.”
PAC report conclusions and recommendations The Home Office has not worked collaboratively with other departments to fully assess the impacts of changes to the Skilled Worker visa route on different sectors of the labour market and regions of the United Kingdom. While decisions on immigration rules are subject to collective government agreement, the Home Office is responsible for immigration policy, working with other departments to consider competing objectives. However, the government expanded the Skilled Worker visa in 2022 to include care workers without producing an impact assessment. When considering potential rule changes, there has been insufficient collaboration between the Home Office and other departments on the role of immigration in sectoral workforce strategies. As a result, the Home Office has not had a full understanding of the potential consequences of changes for different sectors of the labour market or regions of the United Kingdom. In particular, the Home Office needs an up-to-date understanding of skill shortages and salary levels across the devolved nations to understand how the route is working across the United Kingdom. The government has recently published the Immigration White Paper, which included establishing the Labour Market Evidence Group to help develop a stronger evidence base on the domestic labour market and a clearer understanding of the role that immigration should play in key sectors. Recommendation 1. (a) Before the end of 2025, The Home Office should write to the Committee to explain how the Labour Market Evidence Group is working and, in particular, how it will lead to a deeper understanding of the role that immigration plays in sector workforce strategies. (b) In future, other departments also need to provide more rigorous analysis of the needs of sectors affected by potential rule changes, including an assessment of the role of immigration in sectoral workforce plans and how potential rule changes may affect this. The Home Office has not had a full understanding of how immigration has helped to address skill shortages or the unintended consequences of the much higher than anticipated use of the Skilled Worker route. More people have used the Skilled Worker visa route than the Home Office anticipated in 2020. It forecast that it would issue 360,000 Skilled Worker visas to overseas applicants (including dependants) over the three years to April 2024, but it issued 931,000. From when the government opened the Skilled Worker visa route in December 2020 up to the end of 2024, 1.18 million people applied to enter the United Kingdom via this route, including, 630,000 as dependants of the main applicant. The route has brought benefits and enabled employers to recruit internationally to help address skill shortages. However, there have also been consequences, such as an 80% increase in people staying permanently in the United Kingdom in 2024 compared to 2021, and the number of people claiming asylum after entering on a Skilled Worker visa rising from 53 in 2022 to 5,300 in 2024. The Home Office reviewed the use of the route in 2022 - before its expansion to include care workers - and the recent White Paper sets out the occupations making use of Skilled Worker visas. However, the Home Office has not yet published its evaluation of the route, including whether it is meeting its objectives, the impact on skills shortages across different sectors of the labour market or regions of the United Kingdom, and whether the route has operated as intended. Recommendation 2. Alongside its Treasury minute response to this report, the Home Office should write to the Committee setting out the results of its evaluation of the Skilled Worker visa route, including:
The Home Office opened the Skilled Worker visa route for social care workers quickly and failed to understand the risks. In 2022, the Home Office eased entry requirements for care workers to help the social care sector respond to vacancies created by the COVID-19 pandemic. It moved quickly to expand the Skilled Worker route and did not consider the risks of non-compliance with visa rules. From when the route was expanded in 2022 up to the end of 2024, 648,100 people applied for Health and Care Worker visas, including the dependants of main applicants. The Home Office identified evidence of exploitation of migrant care workers but was initially slow to respond. Since 2023, it has strengthened controls to test the genuineness of applications and increase its compliance activity, which resulted in the approval rate for Health and Care Worker visas decreasing from 99% to 81%. The Home Office acknowledges that the Skilled Worker visa route has not worked well in the care sector and that it could have done more to ensure compliance with visa rules. The government has recently announced the end of overseas recruitment for care workers, as part of its efforts to reduce net migration. We are concerned about the potential impacts of this decision for the sector, which expects demands for social care roles to increase over the next 10 years. However, the forthcoming NHS 10-year plan could address the lack of parity in pay and conditions between the NHS and social care, making it easier to recruit more domestic workers in this sector. Recommendation 3. The Home Office and Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) should:
The cross-government response to tackling the exploitation of migrant workers has been insufficient and, within this, the Home Office's response has been slow and ineffective. Concerns about the exploitation of migrant workers are well understood and have been raised previously by the Committee. Tackling this exploitation needs a cross-government response to prevent and detect abuses, and take enforcement action when exploitation is identified. The Home Office works with other bodies including the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, which focuses on exploitation and labour market abuses, sector regulators and departments such as HM Revenue and Customs. Within this, the Home Office has not done enough to fulfil its responsibilities. It has not taken sufficient action to prevent exploitation in applicants' home countries and identify bogus agents, relying on sponsors complying with immigration rules. Further, it is not clear whether arrangements to safeguard care workers whose employers' sponsor licence has been revoked - around 34,000 people - are working effectively. The Home Office works with local authorities but was unaware of how arrangements were working in practice or the adequacy of support provided. We are also not convinced by the Home Office's approach to meeting its responsibility for preventing modern slavery, illustrated by it not knowing how many people with Skilled Worker visas had been referred as potential victims. Recommendation 4. The Home Office should work with relevant government bodies to establish an agreed response to tackling exploitation risks and consequences. This should include clear working arrangements for tackling labour market exploitation and abuses; an evaluation of how the regional partnerships are working and the effectiveness of channels for reporting abuses; and explicit arrangements to safeguard migrants when their sponsor's licence is revoked. The Home Office does not understand the extent to which people are complying with the terms of their visa and leaving the United Kingdom when they should. The Home Office did not assess how the risks of non-compliance with visa rules would change when the Skilled Worker route was introduced in 2020, or after care workers were added in 2022. It accepts that it could have done more to put appropriate controls in place. As evidence of exploitation of migrant workers emerged, the Home Office strengthened its response, establishing a Risk Hub to centralise risk identification, introducing new compliance interventions and conducting more detailed checks to test the genuineness of applications. However, there are still areas of weakness. For example, we are concerned that the Home Office did not understand the practical challenges of applying controls in the care sector. It referred just 1% of sponsors for enhanced compliance checks in 2024, with significant numbers of sponsors who obtained licences before the Home Office strengthened controls not subject to checks. Further, it does not understand whether those who have lost their sponsorship are taken on by other sponsors or what happens to people at the end of their visa, including whether they leave the United Kingdom after their visa expires or remain without a valid visa and work illegally. Recommendation 5. The Home Office should undertake a full assessment of its approach to tackling compliance risks to identify gaps in its response, how to target its resources, and apply lessons from the care sector to other sectors. As part of this, it should:
The Home Office has not done enough to understand the experience of customers and improve the service they receive. The Home Office has achieved good performance in managing 'straightforward' applications – processing 94% of these within its service standards in 2023 and 2024 (970,000 cases). However, it takes much longer to process applications on which the applicant has not provided all of the information and further checks are needed to make a decision - which represented 18% of applications between the end of 2021 and 2024 (330,000 cases). The Home Office refers to these as 'complex' applications, it removes these from its public reporting and has no target processing time. Further, the Home Office does not have reliable data on the processing times for 'complex' cases and sponsor licence applications, which means it does not fully understand its performance. The Home Office's target of 80% of applicants being satisfied with the application service illustrates a lack of ambition, suggesting it is content with one in five of its customers being dissatisfied. It is not doing enough to understand the customer perspective and make improvements to its service, including addressing concerns from applicants and sponsors about complicated guidance and poor customer support. Applicants and sponsors are also unable to track the progress of their applications, which is the cause of many complaints about the service. The Home Office's planned transformation of its sponsorship system has also been delayed and it needs to address operational issues with the IT system used for processing visa applications. Recommendation 6. In its Treasury Minute response to this report, the Home Office should set out how it is improving its customer service. As part of this, it should:
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