Written question asked by Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative) on Friday, 30 May 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 3 June 2025. It was answered by Stephen Kinnock (Labour) on Monday, 16 June 2025 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Migrant Workers: Recruitment
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of restricting access to overseas recruitment on levels of recruitment from the in-country redeployment pool.
- Answer
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The care worker route has seen unacceptable levels of abuse and exploitation; between July 2022 and December 2024, the Home Office revoked over 470 sponsor licences, impacting approximately 40,000 workers in the care sector.
Although overseas recruitment in adult social care will end, in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights will be permitted for a transition period until 2028. This will be kept under review. These arrangements include those who need to switch employers following a sponsor licence revocation and the Department of Health and Social Care is providing up to £12.5 million to regional partnerships in 2025/26 to support these international recruits to find alternative employment.
No specific assessment has been made of the impact of restricting overseas recruitment on the levels of recruitment from the in-country redeployment pool. However, in the technical annex published alongside the Immigration White Paper on 12 May 2025, the Home Office has estimated an annual reduction of approximately 7,000 main visa applicants because of ending overseas recruitment for care workers and senior care workers. This is based on its internal management information for entry visas granted covering the period March 2024 to February 2025. This estimate reflects that there was a drop in visa grants of more than 90% compared with the 12 months ending March 2024. This analysis will be refined and included within the relevant Impact Assessments accompanying the rule changes, as appropriate.
The technical annex is available at the following link:
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 55436
- Session
- 2024-26
- Related items
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Restoring Control over the Immigration System
Monday, 12 May 2025
Command papers
House of Commons
House of Lords
- Transferred
- Yes
- Subjects
- Labour mobility Recruitment Migrant workers
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-03-02 10:33:04 +0000
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- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2024-25/55436
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