Reduce Immigration - Attract Highly Skilled Workers
In its Report Immigration: Skilled Worker Visa of 17 March 2025, the National Audit Office has conducted a review of the Skilled Worker Visa regime in the United Kingdom and has come up with recommendations for the Home Office.
Recommendations by the National Audit Office
Excerpts Copied from National Audit Office Report Immigration: Skilled Worker visas of 17 March 2025
In 2025, the government intends to publish an Immigration white paper, including plans to reduce migration. It also announced that it will consider how to flex the visa system to continue to attract highly skilled workers to the UK to support economic growth. The government is seeking to link immigration and skills policies through the Migration Advisory Committee, Skills England, the Industrial Strategy Council and the Labour Market Advisory Board working together. Our recommendations are intended to help the Home Office strengthen its stewardship of the Skilled Worker visa system to support a coherent approach. Other departments also have a role to play in developing sector-based skills strategies and providing evidence on the impacts of changes.
The Home Office should:
a in the next six months, work with the Migration Advisory Committee, Skills England, the Industrial Strategy Council and Labour Market Advisory Board to establish an agreed methodological approach to better understand the role that immigration can play in addressing skills shortages across different sectors of the labour market. This should identify the data that are needed, how they will be collected, processed and brought together, and how the insights will be used to inform future changes to visa entry requirements so they are based on a thorough understanding of the potential impacts on labour markets and the risks posed by exploitation;
b improve its understanding of the extent to which the Skilled Worker visa route is meeting its objectives by:
• completing and publishing its evaluation of the Skilled Worker visa route within the next three months;
• complete an assessment of what happens to people at the end of their visa period by the end of 2025, five years after the route was introduced; and
• identify the data it needs – including from other departments – to allow it to better understand how the route is being used on an ongoing basis;
c improve efficiency and customer service by using an analysis of its existing management information on operational performance, including from customer surveys, contacts, complaints and appeals, to produce a service improvement plan that identifies service issues, actions to resolve them, and creates a new dashboard to provide a more complete view of service quality from a customer perspective – this might include devising a way to improve how customers are kept informed throughout the application process;
d strengthen its approach to tackling non-compliance with visa conditions and potential labour market abuses by:
• explicitly evaluating non-compliance risks when considering any expansion of the Skilled Worker visa route to include new occupations;
• reviewing sector-specific risk assessments every six months to develop and refresh its understanding of evolving non-compliance risks; and
• evaluating the effectiveness of different types of compliance interventions;
e before the end of 2025, work with relevant government agencies and stakeholders to establish new working arrangements to develop a more effective joined-up approach to tackling exploitation of visa holders. Specifically, these should:
• identify ways to improve communication with overseas applicants to ensure that they have the necessary information on and support with the Skilled Worker visa route;
• review data-sharing arrangements with local authorities and HM Revenue & Customs to identify the refinements necessary to improve its ability to identify potential labour market abuses and improve safeguarding for people whose status is jeopardised by the cancellation of sponsor licences; and
• establish ways of working with the Fair Work Agency to improve labour market standards for migrants on Skilled Worker visas.
