Home Office requested an assessment within three months as to why it granted three times as many skilled worker visas. The National Audit Office (NAO) highlights the need for improved management of a program at the heart of the country’s continuing migration debate and calls on the UK government to swiftly investigate the underlying issues causing the sharp rise in worker visas.
According to the NAO, the UK issued around three times as many skilled worker visas in 2020 than originally anticipated; the Home Office has not yet offered an explanation. Additionally, the NAO said last year, considerable efforts were made to reduce the program with little investigation into the possible effects on businesses.
In order to comprehend the effects of changes to the skilled worker visa route, the Home Office and other departments need to make better use of data, according to NAO Comptroller and Auditor General Gareth Davies. This entails enhancing client experiences and stopping visa holders from being taken advantage of. The Home Office cannot guarantee cost-effectiveness in overseeing the visa system without this knowledge.
The NAO has pushed the government to finish evaluating people’s circumstances at the conclusion of their visa period by year-end and to produce an assessment of the skilled worker route within three months. The watchdog recommended that ministries work with other government agencies to better understand how to overcome skills shortages.
According to a Home Office official, the government has already started putting several of the NAO’s recommendations into practice, including more departmental collaboration. The spokesperson stated, “We will go further and publish a White Paper under the Plan for Change to restore order to our broken immigration system.” In order to increase our domestic workforce and reduce our dependency on foreign labour to support economic growth, this will connect our immigration, skills, and visa systems.
Recommendations from the NAO Report to the Home Office
The government wants to release a white paper on immigration in 2025, which will include strategies for lowering migration. Additionally, it declared that it will think about ways to loosen the visa requirements in order to keep luring highly qualified people to the UK and fostering economic expansion. Through collaboration between the Labour Market Advisory Board, Skills England, the Industrial Strategy Council, and the Migration Advisory Committee, the government is attempting to connect immigration and skills policies. The goal of the NAO’s recommendations is to assist the Home Office in improving its oversight of the skilled worker visa program in order to promote a logical strategy. Developing sector-based skills plans and supplying data on the effects of changes are tasks that other departments can help with.
The Home Office ought to:
A) Over the next six months, collaborate with the Labour Market Advisory Board, Skills England, the Industrial Strategy Council, and the Migration Advisory Committee to develop a consensus methodological approach to better understand how immigration can help address skills shortages in various labour market sectors. This should specify the necessary data, the methods for gathering, processing, and combining it, as well as how the results will be applied to guide future modifications to visa entry requirements that are grounded in a comprehensive comprehension of the possible effects on labour markets and the dangers associated with exploitation;
B) Enhance its comprehension of how well the skilled worker visa pathway is accomplishing its goals by:
• within the following three months, finishing and publishing its assessment of the skilled worker visa route;
• By the end of 2025, five years following the route’s launch, conduct an evaluation of what happens to individuals when their visa period expires; and
• determine the information it requires, including from other departments, in order to gain a better understanding of the route’s continuous usage;
C) Increase productivity and customer service by analysing its current management data on operational performance, such as from customer surveys, contacts, complaints, and appeals, to develop a plan for service improvement that identifies problems and takes steps to fix them. It also develops a new dashboard that gives a more comprehensive view of service quality from the viewpoint of the customer, which may include figuring out how to better inform customers during the application process;
D) Boost its strategy to address possible labour market abuses and noncompliance with visa requirements by:
• specifically assessing the risks of non-compliance while contemplating any extension of the skilled worker visa pathway to encompass additional professions;
• updating its knowledge of changing non-compliance threats by examining sector-specific risk assessments every six months; and
• assessing the efficacy of various compliance intervention kinds;
E) Prior to the end of 2025, collaborate with pertinent government organisations and interested parties to create new working agreements in order to create a better coordinated strategy to combat visa exploitation.
In particular, these ought to:
• determine how to better communicate with foreign applicants to make sure they get the information and assistance they need on the skilled worker visa process;
• examine data-sharing agreements with HM Revenue & Customs and local authorities to see what needs to be improved in order to better detect possible labour market abuses and enhance protection for those whose status is at risk due to sponsor licence cancellations; and
• Determine how to collaborate with the Fair Work Agency to raise the bar for the labour market for immigrants with skilled worker visas.
A total of 900,000 foreign nationals have been granted skilled labour visas.
More than 900,000 foreign nationals have been granted skilled worker visas since the program was introduced in 2018 by the administration of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Following the UK’s exit from the European Union, the points-based system was presented as a way for the nation to have more control over its borders.
The UK’s historically high net migration rate, which peaked at 906,000 in the year ending in mid-2023, has been largely attributed to the notable increase in visa approvals. Between 2021 and 2024, the number of people moving to the UK permanently increased by 80%, while between 2021 and 2023, the number of dependents entering the UK increased by 360%.
Since his election in July, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government has promised to lower the immigration influx, but the ongoing migration issue has presented serious obstacles. An rise in asylum claims from those crossing the English Channel has entangled the debate over lawful migration.
Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party, which supports bringing net migration down to zero, has criticised Starmer’s administration on this point. A more aggressive approach to immigration has also been taken by Kemi Badenoch’s opposition Conservative Party.
Businesses in labor-scarce industries can sponsor migrants through the skilled worker route, giving them jobs linked to the sponsoring company. The composition of recent immigrants has changed after the UK left the EU; most come from Nigeria and India since the nation’s businesses are looking for medical specialists outside of Europe.
The National Audit Office (NAO) claims that changes to the visa pathway implemented in 2023 under former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were made “without full analysis of potential consequences for various industries and businesses or with limited consultation.” These adjustments included raising the minimum wage requirements that firms must meet when recruiting migrant workers and forbidding care workers from bringing dependents.
The changes caused industries including social care, construction, and architecture—all of which are experiencing a lack of domestic workers—to use the visa route less frequently. According to information obtained by Bloomberg, businesses in the UK care sector may have been illegally charging their employees to enter the nation. However, because their eligibility to stay in the UK is dependent on their continued employment, many workers feel powerless to voice their grievances.
Instances of trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, underpayment of salaries, and unsuitable working conditions were among the “widespread evidence of exploitation” of migrant workers in the care industry that the NAO emphasised. According to the report, the government’s strategy for dealing with these issues was not well-coordinated.