Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many overseas NHS and care workers have received a reimbursement for the immigration health surcharge since 1 October 2020.
Answered by Edward Argar
The data requested is not currently collected in the format requested. The Department of Health and Social Care and the Home Office will continue to consider the most effective way of ensuring data transparency. Our partners are responsible for collecting information on the operation of the policy, which is used to maintain an effective service.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a non-sponsored route similar to the Frontier Worker scheme to include new employed and self-employed social care workers who are not resident in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Citizens’ Rights Agreements protect those EEA or Swiss citizens who were frontier workers in the UK by the end of the transition period at 11pm on 31 December 2020 and who continue to be so. The UK’s frontier worker permit scheme, which has been open to applications since 10 December 2020, allows those protected frontier workers to obtain a permit, free of charge, as evidence of their right to continue entering the UK as a frontier worker after 30 June 2021.
There is no deadline by which protected frontier workers must apply for a permit, though it is mandatory for non-Irish frontier workers to hold a frontier worker permit to enter the UK for work from 1 July 2021.
Where an overseas worker is not protected by the Citizens’ Rights Agreements, the new points-based immigration system provides routes for skilled workers. There are no plans to make available a route for those who do not meet the skills threshold of the Skilled Worker route. Nursing auxiliaries and Social Care workers including health care support workers, senior carers, senior support workers and nursing home team leaders do meet the skills threshold but would need to be sponsored by a licenced sponsor.
The introduction of the Health and Care visa last August made it quicker and cheaper for regulated health and care professionals – including Senior Care Workers - and their dependants to secure their visa. We have commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to look further at the issues surrounding the ending of free movement on the social care sector and we look forward to receiving their report by the end of April 2022.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on reviewing the effect of EU withdrawal and the end of free movement on social care staffing levels.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
While 7% of the existing workforce identify as European Union citizens, they have been able to apply to remain in the UK under the EU settlement scheme and so we do not expect a sudden loss of this workforce. The flow of EU workers into the sector annually is small comparable to the size of the workforce; fewer than 5% of all workers joining the sector in a direct care role in 2019/20 had arrived from the EU in the previous 12 months. Therefore, we do not anticipate that the end of transition will have an immediate impact on workforce supply. We are confident that employers will be able to recruit domestically to outnumber any decreased flow of workers from the EU and we are working closely with counterparts across Government to encourage people with the right skills and values to work in the sector.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of the end of free movement on the availability of labour in the UK social care sector.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The flow of EU workers into the sector annually is small comparable to the size of the workforce. Fewer than 5% of all workers joining the sector in a direct care role in 2019/20 had arrived from the EU in the previous 12 months. Therefore, we do not anticipate that there will be an immediate impact on workforce supply. We will continue to monitor the situation with regards to domestic recruitment and the flow of workers from the EU.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to make it easier for care workers to secure visas to work in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government recognises the vital contribution overseas NHS, health and social care workers have made and continue to make in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The introduction of the Health and Care visa last August made it quicker and cheaper for regulated health and care professionals – including Senior Care Workers - and their dependants to secure their visa.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has also extended the visas of over 10,000 key, frontline regulated health and care professionals, and their eligible family members. Details of the free extension, including the eligible occupations can be found at www.gov.uk/coronavirus-health-worker-visa-extension.
In response to issues raised during the Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020, the Government will shortly commission an independent review of the impact of ending free movement on the care sector. This will be published in due course. Yet UK Immigration policy should not be viewed as an alternative to offering hard working care workers the type of rewarding packages and career development opportunities common in other sectors, especially at a time when many UK based workers may be looking for new opportunities as a result of the economic impacts of the global pandemic.
Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of the end of free movement on the social care workforce.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government recognises the vital contribution overseas NHS, health and social care workers have made and continue to make in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The introduction of the Health and Care visa last August made it quicker and cheaper for regulated health and care professionals – including Senior Care Workers - and their dependants to secure their visa.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has also extended the visas of over 10,000 key, frontline regulated health and care professionals, and their eligible family members. Details of the free extension, including the eligible occupations can be found at www.gov.uk/coronavirus-health-worker-visa-extension.
In response to issues raised during the Immigration and Social Security Coordination (EU Withdrawal) Act 2020, the Government will shortly commission an independent review of the impact of ending free movement on the care sector. This will be published in due course. Yet UK Immigration policy should not be viewed as an alternative to offering hard working care workers the type of rewarding packages and career development opportunities common in other sectors, especially at a time when many UK based workers may be looking for new opportunities as a result of the economic impacts of the global pandemic.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 27 May 2021 to Question 6485, when he plans that data on the number of successful refunds of the Immigration Health Surcharge to health and social care workers will be centrally validated so that that data can be published.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Department of Health and Social Care and Home Office are continuing to consider to options for validation and will provide a further update in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to expand the list of professions eligible for the fee-free one-year visa extension during the covid-19 outbreak to include care workers; what recent discussions she has had with representatives of care workers on the exclusion of that workforce from that list; what estimate she has made of the number of care workers so affected; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government recognises the vital contribution overseas NHS, health and social care workers have and continue to make in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The introduction of the Health and Care visa last August made it quicker and cheaper for regulated health and care professionals – including Senior Care Workers - and their dependents to secure their visa.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has extended the visas of over 10,000 key, frontline regulated health and care professionals, and their eligible family members.
The Department of Health and Social Care regularly meet with the Health and Social Care sector and we will keep the free extension offer under review.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many families of (a) NHS workers and (b) independent health and social care workers who have died after contracting covid-19 have (i) applied for and (ii) been granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK since 29 April 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office is granting immediate indefinite leave to remain (ILR), free of any charges, to family members of NHS, health and care workers who unfortunately lose their lives as a result of contracting COVID-19.
The Home Office has received 49 applications for ILR for those held in this route, with 10 granted to date.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many extensions UKVI has processed via the covid-19 auto-extension visa scheme for eligible health professionals (a) working in the NHS, (b) working in independent health and social care and (c) in total since March 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The information requested is not held in a published format and to gather it would attract a disproportionate cost.
The most recent published migration statistics can be viewed:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
The available published data shows the numbers of visas granted in each work route but does not provide any data on the specific numbers that have been granted on this scheme nor the number of Biometric Residence Permits received by UKVI.