Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of employees in the average workforce of organisations listed on the register of licences sponsors (workers) are visa holders.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold any data on this matter. Obtaining the specific information requested would involve a breakdown of the workforce for each individual sponsor, which would require GDPR compliant agreements in place and only be obtained by disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to to publish annual workforce totals for each organisation on the register of licensed sponsors (workers).
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
At present, there are no plans to publish this data, although we do keep such matters under review.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many immigrants found to have been working illegally have been deported since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
As set out in legislation, an individual is liable to removal from the UK if "the person requires leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom but does not have it". The Home Office does not routinely categorise immigration offenders by the manner in which they became irregular, including those who may have been found to be working in breach of visa conditions, and to do so could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial requirements there are to be granted a work visa related to charity work.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The financial requirements for the Charity Worker route are published in Appendix Temporary Work – Charity Worker of the Immigration Rules: Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules Appendix Temporary Work - Charity Worker - Guidance - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have dependent visas associated with a holder of a (a) Religious Worker and (b) Minister of Religion visa.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa route, including Religious Worker, and applicant type in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the outcomes of visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset.
Please note that Religious Worker dependants are grouped into the 'Dependant - Temporary Worker' category.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of June 2025.
To calculate a refusal rate, we recommend that you take the number of refusals and divide by the total number of outcomes in a given period.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of visa applications were rejected by visa type since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa route, including Religious Worker, and applicant type in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the outcomes of visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset.
Please note that Religious Worker dependants are grouped into the 'Dependant - Temporary Worker' category.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of June 2025.
To calculate a refusal rate, we recommend that you take the number of refusals and divide by the total number of outcomes in a given period.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have a (a) Religious Worker and (b) Minister of Religion visa.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa route, including Religious Worker, and applicant type in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the outcomes of visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset.
Please note that Religious Worker dependants are grouped into the 'Dependant - Temporary Worker' category.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of June 2025.
To calculate a refusal rate, we recommend that you take the number of refusals and divide by the total number of outcomes in a given period.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of migrants who have arrived illegally in the UK since 4 August 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
By its very nature, it is not possible to know the exact number of people who arrive to the UK illegally, and so we do not seek to make any official estimates of this. In June 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a note on ‘measuring illegal migration’.
However, the Home Office does publish statistics on detected irregular arrivals to the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on detected irregular arrivals by method of entry is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of June 2025. Data for July to September 2025 will be published on 27 November 2025. Data on daily small boat arrivals is published at: Small boat activity in the English Channel - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the average salary earned by (a) all and (b) skilled worker visa holders.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
An estimate of the average salary earned by all visa holders is not available, as the information is not held.
HMRC and Home Office have introduced a data sharing process to match visa data to administrative tax data. The Home Office published a research report on 12 May on earnings, employment, and Income Tax liabilities of visa holders on Sponsored Work (Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, and Senior or Specialist Worker (Global Business Mobility)) and Family routes.
The publication reports a median figure of £56,600 for the annual adjusted earnings of skilled worker entry clearance visa holders in financial year 2023 to 2024. Skilled worker extension of stay visa holders were found to have a median annual adjusted earnings figure of £56,300 over the same period.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many immigrants have been found to be working illegally since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The relevant statistical figures can be accessed via the official government website at the following link:
Illegal working activity between 5 July 2024 and 28 June 2025 - GOV.UK
The government takes illegal working very seriously, and we are determined to clamp down on the employment of individuals with no right to work in the UK.