Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of rules requiring social care workers who fail to find alternative sponsorship arrangements to leave the UK on their dependents.

The White Paper, published on May 12 2025, set out that the Government intend to end access to the Health and Care visa for carers due to worker exploitation in the route. There will be a transition period until 2028, we will permit visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights, but this will be kept under review.

On 9 April the Home Office previously restricted access to overseas recruitment unless employers have first tried to recruit international care workers in the UK. Sponsors are also required to access the redeployment pool before sponsoring switching applications in-country so although we are considering whether this requirement will be needed longer term, we are not in a position to confirm at this stage.