Home Office reasons for not consulting on care work visa change ‘unconvincing’

The Home Office’s explanation for not consulting on its ban on foreign care workers bringing family members to the UK was “unconvincing”, a Lords committee said adding that it had provided only “minimal evidence” that the change will have no effect on worker numbers.

Voices in the social care sector complained they had been “blindsided” by the changes, announced last December and due to come in from March 11.

It was one of a raft of other measures announced at the end of last year on visa changes which came amid pressure on the Prime Minister to bring down net migration.

The cross-party House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee said it had questioned the Home Office about the lack of consultation and been told that the Government felt an external consultation “would carry an unacceptably high risk of a prolonged spike in applications pre-empting the rules changes”.

The committee said there was “an inconsistency” in this argument due to the fact the rule changes were publicly announced in early December.

“We would expect that an announcement in Parliament would have at least as much effect on applications as a consultation and, therefore, the suggestion that the consultation was omitted to avoid a closing down sale is unconvincing,” the report concluded.

The committee said that given the concern in the sector about the impact of the measures, it expects the Home Office “to keep their effects under close review”.

Committee member Baroness Randerson said: “The Government says that the dependant ban will not reduce the number of immigrant workers, but it has not provided evidence to back this up.

“This means it is impossible for Parliament to assess the effects of the changes properly and the sector is also left in the dark.

“Whenever the Government lays legislation which has the potential to affect the effectiveness of a sector, and has real world consequences for the public at large, it must provide information on the impact.

“This is a principle the Government has accepted but does not always observe in practice and we are writing to the Home Office to ask for further details.”

The committee also considered changes to the Ukraine schemes which came into force without warning last month.

The Home Office closed the Ukraine family scheme on February 19, without prior warning.

On the lack of notice, the committee said the Home Office told them this was “justified and proportionate in order to maintain the orderly operation of the immigration system”, and specifically to avoid a “surge in applications”.

But the Home Office also stated that the changes will only affect a “small proportion” of potential applicants.

The committee said: “The Government is arguing both that the effect of the changes is small, but also that they may lead to a ‘substantial increase in application levels in advance of the deadline’ that could ‘overwhelm the system’.”

The committee said this was not the first time it had written to a minister in the Home Office to seek assurances the department will address shortcomings in its information provision.

The peers said they will “continue to press the department to improve its performance, and support it in doing so where we can, while highlighting any further examples where it falls short”.

Adis Sehic, from the Work Rights Centre, which had raised concerns to the committee alongside the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA), said the report had confirmed their beliefs that “these changes have been ill-thought-out and are fundamentally flawed”.

He said: “It lays bare ministers’ lack of consideration towards the wide-ranging impacts the changes could have on everyone involved: migrant care workers, vulnerable patients, the health and care sector itself, and Ukrainians both in the UK and looking to flee the war in Ukraine.”

The situation had done “little to instil confidence that immigration policy is not currently being made on the hoof”, he added.

Legal migration minister Tom Pursglove said the measures on care worker visas “will deliver on our promise and cut the rising numbers of visas granted to overseas care workers and address significant concerns about high levels of non-compliance, worker exploitation and abuse within the social care sector, particularly for overseas workers”.

On the Ukraine schemes, a Home Office spokesperson said the UK has “offered or extended sanctuary to over 280,000 Ukrainians” since the start of the war.

They added: “It is right that we continue to adapt and develop the visa routes to ensure they remain as efficient and sustainable as possible.

“Ukrainian nationals who would have qualified under the Ukraine family scheme will still be able to apply to Homes for Ukraine. Family members who are settled here can also still continue to sponsor a family member to come to the UK under Homes for Ukraine.”

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