Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
37th Report - Immigration: Skilled worker visas
Published 4 Jul 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Immigration: Skilled worker visas All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
While changes to immigration rules are subject to collective government agreement, the Home Office is responsible for designing and implementing immigration policy.10 We asked the Home Office what work it had done to assess the impacts of changes to the route ahead of their implementation.11 It told us that it balances government policy with the priorities of other departments, and seeks to ensure that views of all sectors are represented.12 However, it did not publish an impact assessment before expanding the Skilled Worker route to include care workers in 2022 and only published its impact assessment on the Spring 2024 changes in September 2024. The National Audit Office also found that the Home Office’s impact assessments could be improved by including success criteria and evaluation plans, and assessing compliance risks.13 7 Qq 5, 9, 10 8 Q 9; C&AG’s Report, para 2.1 9 Home Office, Restoring Control over the Immigration System, May 2025 10 Q 16; C&AG’s Report, para 2.4 11 Q 9 12 Q 27; C&AG’s Report, para 2.4 13 Q 9 11
From: Public Accounts Committee, 37th Report - Immigration: Skilled worker visas (HC 819), 4 July 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-seventh Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 4 September 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty-seventh report from Session 2024-26
Published 15 October 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with the Committee's recommendations on labour market evidence, evaluation, care workers, exploitation and compliance, but disagrees with the recommendation on customer service.
- On sector workforce analysis, it agrees that other departments should provide more rigorous analysis, with a target implementation date of July 2026, and says the Labour Market Evidence Group "will further strengthen collaboration" between the Home Office and departments leading on labour market and skills.
- It agrees to set out its evaluation of the Skilled Worker route, with a target date of October 2025, stating that the evaluation was published alongside the Immigration White Paper on 12 May.
- On exploitation, it agrees with the recommendation (target date April 2027) and says an update to the Committee is planned for April 2027, "one year after its creation" of the Fair Work Agency.
- It disagrees with the customer service recommendation, stating the Home Office "is committed to continuous improvement in customer service standards" and that it monitors key indicators.