A cross-party House of Lords committee has raised concerns about government plans to restrict health and social care visas.
In its 16th Report of Session 23-24, the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee called on the government to provide more information about the effect of the changes, which took effect in February.
The changes remove the provision for most dependants to accompany or join workers coming to the UK to work in the health and care sectors, and narrows the range of jobs in England for which migrant workers can be sponsored, reducing it from all posts in the care sector to only those where the sponsor is registered with the CQC.
The committee has written to the Home Office to seek further information and clarification on the concerns raised. The correspondence will be published in a future report.
Committee member Baroness Randerson said: “We recognise that these changes are intended to address concerns about levels of legal migration. However, there is alarm among social care providers about the impact of these changes: the care sector is already struggling to recruit sufficient workers and is worried these measures could make things worse.
“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."
