Recommendation 12

The number of people who have used the Skilled Worker visa route is much higher than the Home Office originally expected, driven by large increases in the number of Health and Care Worker visas.26 The Home Office forecast that it would issue 360,000 Skilled Worker visas to people entering the country over the period 2021 to 2024 but issued 931,000 visas over this period.27 The Home Office told us that the Skilled Worker visa route has been used flexibly to successfully target skill shortages and pressures that have arisen across the labour market. It also pointed to analysis which showed the benefits of bringing workers, particularly higher-skilled workers, into the economy.28