Ahead of the government's upcoming Immigration White Paper, the independent public spending watchdog the National Audit Office has examined the Home Office's management of the Skilled Worker visa route, which opened in December 2020.

The reports finds changes to reduce the use of the route in Spring 2024 – to help reduce net migration – were made with limited consultation or without full analysis of potential consequences for different industries and businesses. The number of Skilled Worker visas issued has fallen in 2024, with 252,700 fewer compared to 2023 – a 50% reduction.

The report shows that the changes have reduced the use of the route by sectors including social care, construction and architecture. The government's aim for the Skilled Worker visa was to recruit overseas workers, alongside wider government initiatives to grow the domestic labour market. However, the Home Office and departments have not always collaborated effectively on immigration and skills policies.

Overall, much higher-than-expected numbers have used the Skilled Worker route since 2021 – driven by the expansion in 2022 to include care workers. However, the report finds the Home Office does not fully understand how the route is being used or its contribution to the economy. 

The Home Office has commissioned an evaluation of the route, with a report expected in 2025, and the NAO is encouraging the Home Office to publish this report within the next three months so it can better understand the consequences of changing entry requirements, improve customer experience and prevent visa applicants from being exploited.

In addition, the scale of exploitation of Skilled Worker visa holders is not fully known, but the NAO found the government is not joined up when it comes to tackling the exploitation of migrants, with widespread evidence of exploitation in the care sector. This includes criminal activity such as trafficking, forced labour or debt bondage, and labour market abuse such as underpayment of wages, and inappropriate working hours or conditions.

The report finds the Home Office has strengthened its approach to tackling misuse of the visa system. It has started digital audits; established a Risk Hub to centralise risk identification; and introduced new checks to identify and target high-risk cases, and technology to check suspicious payments. As a result, the approval rate on applications has reduced from 99% in 2021 to 79% in 2024 and the refusal rate has risen from 7% to 13% on sponsor licence applications.

The NAO has made several recommendations to help the Home Office strengthen its stewardship of the Skilled Worker visa system. These include:

• To better understand whether it is meeting its objectives, the Home Office needs to complete and publish its evaluation of the Skilled Worker visa route within the next three months.
• By the end of 2025 the Home Office should complete an assessment of what happens to people at the end of their visa period.
• In the next six months, the Home Office should work with the Migration Advisory Committee, Skills England, the Industrial Strategy Council and Labour Market Advisory Board to agree how to address skills shortages across the labour market.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: ‘The Home Office, and departments, must make better use of data to understand the impacts of changes to the Skilled Worker visa route, improve customer experiences and prevent the exploitation of visa holders. Without this understanding, it cannot ensure value for money in managing the visa system.'

In response, Nuffield Trust researcher Cyril Lobont, said: ‘The social care sector remains hugely reliant on skilled overseas workers to deliver care and support to the people who need it, and we need to retain a route for them to come to the UK. At the same time, we know from our research that more must be done to make careers in social care more attractive domestically.

‘Findings of "widespread evidence" of exploitation and underpayment of wages in the care sector are sadly not surprising. This highlights how important it is that the government gets its new Fair Work Agency set up right to robustly stamp this out.

‘The NAO report is more evidence that there's a need for a clear workforce strategy for the social care sector as the current piecemeal approach just isn't coherent. We already have high vacancies, and projections suggest far more people will need to start working in the sector to meet growing care needs. Plans to build a stable workforce will have to include both a domestic and overseas pipeline, and the government should place evidence front-and-centre when making these critical decisions.'