British government officials do not fully understand how the main way for future workers in Great Britain is used or what it contributes to the economy, according to the childcare public spending dog.
The Ministry of the Interior did not carry out an impact assessment before expanding the visa route for skilled workers to include entry -level care jobs in 2022, the national audit office said in a report Posted on Monday.
The decision was one of the key factors behind the increase in net immigration to the United Kingdom, with the health and the accounting of care of 158,300 of the 509,100 claims of qualified workers in 2023.
The high appeal of the route, which opened in 2020, when Brexit ended free movement with the EU, helped companies recruit and increase tax revenue.
This has also led more people to stay permanently in the United Kingdom, more workers bringing family and more than 5,000 people who came to qualified workers applying for asylum in 2024.
But the Ministry of the Interior, which has not conducted the government's immigration policy, also did not evaluate the consequences for various sectors before tightening the rules again in the spring of 2024, introducing the ban on care workers providing family and higher salary thresholds for other qualified workers.
The department of Whitehall “does not fully understand how the route is used, its contribution to the economy or the impact on skills shortages in different sectors and regions,” said the NAO, adding that he had failed to monitor what happened to people when their visa expired.
The watchdog's report intervenes while ministers are preparing to publish a white paper establishing plans to further reduce immigration linked to work over time, linking the use of the visa system to efforts to train and recruit young people born in the United Kingdom.
However, any sudden distribution on the figures is likely to be fiercely challenged by companies in the sectors that have trouble recruiting.
In addition to confirming the intention to reduce global immigration, government ministers have undertaken to guarantee that the high -tech sectors considered crucial for economic growth will be able to recruit qualified workers abroad.
Since the rules were tightened last year, the requests for qualified workers have already reduced by half, totaling only 252,700 in 2024.
Gout was mainly in care – a sector Suffering chronic staff shortages – But the NAO said that higher salary thresholds were also on the scale of public sector veterinarians, butchers working in slaughterhouses and architects, among other professions.
Rules changes are not the only reason why the number of skilled workers has decreased strongly since 2023. The Ministry of the Interior also examines the applications more closely, revoking the license to sponsor visas of almost 1,500 employers in 2024, and rejecting one fifth of the requests in 2024. In contrast, in 2021, it approved 99 percent.
It is estimated that 34,000 care agents have been affected by the revocations of employers' licenses, leaving them without work and risks of expulsion, unless they find a new sponsor.
However, the NAO said that the Home Office still had limited data on the extent to which employers operate workers or abused visa rules – in part because it did not work closely with HM returned & customs, the tax agency or the Ministry of Health and Social Cares.
The home office generated around 438 million pounds sterling in visa costs with qualified workers in 2023-24, well in advance on the cost of 109 million pounds sterling to manage the system, according to Nao estimates.
The watchdog said that the ministry should work with the government migration consulting committee, as well as with skills supervision, industrial strategy and labor market policy, so that changes in future rules are better informed.
The Home Office should already publish this year an assessment of the skilled workers' route he ordered.
The Ministry of the Interior did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
This article has been modified to specify that the assessment of the Route des Workers Skilified will be published by the Home Office
