Conclusion 5

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