Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of sponsor licence revocations on the sustainability of residential care providers in areas experiencing workforce shortages; and what consideration she has given to the proportionality of revocation decisions where compliance breaches are administrative in nature.

The Government remains extremely concerned about levels of worker exploitation in the adult social care sector and UKVI continue to investigate all allegations of sponsor non-compliance.

Revocation is generally a last resort, for example where a sponsor breaches their mandatory duty to pay the worker in accordance with the Immigration Rules and/or national minimum wage regulations.

The Home Office continues to work very closely with the 15 Regional Partnerships funded by the Department for Health and Social Care, together with officials in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This involves data sharing agreements to ensure local authorities are in a position both to address risks to continuity of care and support workers who need new employment.

UKVI also offers a dedicated point of contact, which ensures the prioritisation of all applications for sponsorship or visas related to the workforce who are displaced by revocation absent of any additional priority service fees.