Political reporter
A Labour MP has raised fresh concerns over the government’s failure to properly monitor whether migrants leave the UK after their visas expire.
The UK does not record all individuals leaving the country through border checks, relying instead on matching flight, sea, and rail passenger data with visa records.
The government has promised to set out plans to crack down on record-high levels of migration in the next few weeks.
But former Blair-era minister Clive Betts warned the border system “continue to fail” without proper exits checks leaving a risk of people staying illegally and working in “the black economy”.
Net migration – the number of people coming to the UK, minus the number leaving – hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023, and then fell to 728,000 in the year to June 2024.
But the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has admitted the figures are not completely accurate and are instead an “experimental” statistic – which has previously led to the systematic underestimating of EU migrants and overestimating of others.
New rules introduced by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a bid to reduce migration levels are thought to have contributed to the latest fall in numbers.
Since April 2024, those apply for a visa have needed a job offer with a salary at least £38,700 – an increase of nearly 50% from the previous £26,200 minimum.
The threshold does not apply to some jobs – such as in health and social care, and teachers on national pay scales.
During an evidence session of the Public Accounts Committee, Marc Owen, the director for visa status said his team “were not tracking every single individual” working in the UK.
Pressed by Betts at the committee, Mr Owen said the government “can only know” if someone has left the country by matching airline passenger data with visa records.
Instead of tracking exits, the Home Office relies on employers carrying out visa checks and enforcement squads to catch those overstaying their visas.
“We use our immigration enforcement services to visit illegal working places on the basis of intelligence and to collect people and to return them as they can,” he said.
Home Office Permanent Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo said overstaying is “a problem” the department is now “fixing,” with support from HMRC and local councils.
“We’re not saying it’s been solved,” she said. “We are identifying the issues and putting in place fixes.”
The Home Office were also working to modernise border security and boost digital checks, Mr Owen said.
Currently the Home Office do not know who is “here or not, that is the reality”, Betts said.
Visa holders who have not “gone through your systems they just disappear and they’re in the black economy,” he warned.
Betts told the BBC the lack of exit checks were the symptom of a “general failure of the border system over several governments” leading to a splintered fight against abuse of the system.
Betts urged the government to make visa checks the backbone of its new immigration plan, expected imminently.
Full details of government’s immigration plans are due to be published in a new immigration white paper later in May.
A Home Office spokesperson has previously said: “Under our plan for change, our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.”
