Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the exploitation of people working illegally.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

As already announced, through the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, the Government is introducing tough new laws to clamp down on illegal working.

We have expanded our work across government and with law enforcement partners to target, investigate and enforce penalties on unscrupulous employers who illegally employ those with no right to work here.

We are stopping exploitation by criminal gangs, ensuring vulnerable people receive the correct support and making sure that those who break the law face serious consequences.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the recommendations of the Thirty-Seventh Report of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2024-25 on Immigration: Skilled worker visas, HC 819, what arrangements are in place to safeguard international social care workers when sponsors’ licences are revoked beyond regional partnerships funded by the Department for Health and Social Care; and whether she is taking steps to strengthen those arrangements.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The standard cancellation activity for care workers impacted by revocation of the sponsor’s licence has been temporarily paused to enable the workers to find alternative employment. When an Adult Social Care sponsor is revoked, UKVI write to all the impacted workers individually to signpost them to direct support provided by the relevant regional partnerships when in England and to a specified mailbox in Scotland.

In addition to this, UKVI have agreed a process with the Regional Partnerships to expedite the associated applications for displaced workers, waiving the usual premium service fees that would be associated with either sponsor licence applications, certificate of sponsorship applications and visa applications.

The Regional Partnerships have a nominated official within UKVI who they are able to contact directly to seek support relating to care workers impacted by a revocation.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the recommendations of the Thirty-Seventh Report of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2024-25 on Immigration: Skilled worker visas, HC 819, and the white paper entitled Restoring control over the immigration system, published on 12 May 2025, CP 1326, what steps her Department is taking to facilitate migrant care workers to move to new sponsors.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The standard cancellation activity for care workers impacted by revocation of the sponsor’s licence has been temporarily paused to enable the workers to find alternative employment. When an Adult Social Care sponsor is revoked, UKVI write to all the impacted workers individually to signpost them to direct support provided by the relevant regional partnerships when in England and to a specified mailbox in Scotland.

In addition to this, UKVI have agreed a process with the Regional Partnerships to expedite the associated applications for displaced workers, waiving the usual premium service fees that would be associated with either sponsor licence applications, certificate of sponsorship applications and visa applications.

The Regional Partnerships have a nominated official within UKVI who they are able to contact directly to seek support relating to care workers impacted by a revocation.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the recommendations of the Thirty-Seventh Report of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2024-25 on Immigration: Skilled worker visas, HC 819 and pursuant to the Answer of 2 April 2025 to Question 39615 on Care Workers: Migrant Workers, what steps he is taking to expedite publication of an evaluation of the effectiveness of regional partnerships to support (a) displaced and (b) exploited care workers into new employment.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government welcomes the Committee of Public Accounts’ report on skilled worker visas and will respond fully in due course.

The Department is providing up to £12.5 million this financial year to 15 regional partnerships to help support international care workers affected by sponsor non-compliance into alternative, ethical employment.

We have commissioned the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce to undertake an independent evaluation of the 2024/25 international recruitment regional fund. We currently expect the final report of this evaluation to be published by King's College London in January 2026.

Regional partnerships provide the Department with monthly and quarterly monitoring data regarding progress, including on the number of displaced workers who have secured new sponsored employment.

Found: bill committee The Mental Health Bill [Lords] Committee was chaired by Gill Furniss (Lab), Carolyn Harris