Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure health and care worker’s on Tier 2 visa’s are protected from exploitation by their employers.

The Government condemns the exploitation of international care workers by rogue employers in the adult social care sector and continues to take robust action against this unscrupulous behaviour.

If an individual is in danger or at risk of exploitation, we urge them to come forward so we can work with the police or other law enforcement bodies, including the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), to support them through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM).

The enforcement bodies are currently working together to investigate a range of allegations about the adult care sector. The evidence ranges from labour market offences such as charging for work finding fees and non-payment of National Minimum Wage to the higher level of exploitative abuses such as debt bondage and modern slavery.

We have recently implemented prohibitions on Skilled Worker sponsors recouping sponsorship costs from those they sponsor, and those doing so now risk losing their licence. We also intend to ban any employer who flouts employment laws from acting as a sponsor in the future.