Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Assess compliance risks of visa routes, developing sector-specific risk assessments and improving departure data.
Conclusion
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 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: • develop sector specific risk assessments, which are updated every six months; 6 • identify what data is needed to strengthen its response, including how to better understand what happens to people at the end of their visa and the effectiveness of checks on sponsoring organisations; and • set out a clear method of assessing what happens when visas come to an end, specifically
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and is forming a dedicated unit to leverage HMRC data for sponsorship checks, planning improvements for bulk processing, and testing new tools for organisational data and sponsor personnel checks, with a new tool launching Autumn 2025. It is also implementing eVisas/ETAs to improve data quality and developing a new digital service to monitor visa compliance and identify illegal working.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. data to guide caseworkers. A digital tool alerts users to risks linked to occupations which are assessed to be below degree level on the Temporary Shortage List. The Home Office routinely use the Salary and Employment Checker for sponsorship cases and are forming a dedicated unit to scale this work, leveraging HMRC data. Planned improvements will enable bulk processing. Additional tools are being tested to surface organisational data, map sponsor structures, and enhance compliance. A new tool in Autumn 2025 will improve checks on key sponsor personnel using data from Companies House and HMRC. The introduction of eVisas and Electronic Travel Authorisations (ETAs) means more is known about everyone coming to the UK, improving data quality and enabling upstream interventions. eVisas will increasingly update in real time when status changes, automatically revoking access to work, benefits, housing, and services unlike physical documents. Immigration status information is available automatically through system to system checks with public authorities and government departments. A new digital service is being developed to determine whether individuals inside or outside the UK are/have complied with conditions on their stay in the UK. This will further empower Immigration Enforcement to identify, locate, and take firm action against those who attempt to remain or work in the UK illegally.