Home Office failing to do background checks on migrants
Since 2021, nearly 400,000 migrants have arrived in Britain without the Home Office requiring them to produce a Criminal Record Certificate.
The Home Office is failing to conduct criminal record checks on large numbers of legal migrants moving to Britain, new research by the Centre for Migration Control can reveal.
Between January 2021 and March 2024, 237,426 foreign nationals moved to the UK on a work visa without providing the Home Office with a Criminal Record Certificate (CRC).
They brought with them approximately 154,000 dependants, who were also not required to provide CRCs.
Measures introduced in 2017 by the Conservative government required individuals coming to the UK to work in certain occupations to provide a CRC from countries they have lived in for more than twelve months. However, the roll-out of this requirement was not extended to a host of other professions.
This is despite, at the time, the Home Office stating that it “will continue to monitor implementation with a view to extending the requirement to other migrants in the future.”[1]
As a result, since January 2021 there have been almost a quarter of a million migrants moving to the UK on a work visa that the Home Office has not established do not have a criminal background.
Using nationality data, the CMC calculates that these individuals brought with them 154,000 dependants. Meaning the total arriving on work visa routes, who were not required to provide the Home Office with a CRC, was around 391,000 migrants.
This figure does not take into accounts international students, despite 60% of them now staying in the UK after their studies have been completed. The Graduate Visa route, introduced by the Conservative government, allows these individuals to remain in the UK without a job offer.
This figure does also not consider temporary workers, not the tens of thousands who have arrived in the UK illegally.
The figures come as previous reporting by the Centre for Migration Control showed that the arrest rate of non-UK nationals is twice as high as the native British population.[2] It also comes on the back of the first migrant crime league table, revealing those nationalities that are disproportionately found in Britain’s jails.[3]
Earlier this week, TalkTV broke the exclusive story that 120,000 crimes were committed by foreign nationals between August 2023 and July 2024.[4]
The Home Office must act quickly to remedy this oversight and ensure that all long-term migrants moving to the UK in future undergo and comprehensive background check.
Background
Last week (8th October) the Home Office released a document Guidance on the application process for criminal records checks overseas.[5]
It reiterated the Home Office position that those arriving on a skilled worker visa to take up a role in the education, health and care sectors, “must provide a criminal record certificate for any country (excluding the UK) where they have lived for 12 months or more (whether continuous or in total), in the 10 years before their application, while aged 18 or over.”[6]
However, it also made clear that “visa applicants in all other routes are not currently required to provide criminal record certificates. Also, those already in the UK seeking to extend their stay in one of the above categories are not presently included.”
There are roughly 200 occupations on the skilled worker route for which migrants are not required to produce a criminal record certificate.
These occupations were cross referenced with Home Office statistics on Sponsored work visas by occupation and industry, which records the occupation code of those entering the UK on a work visa.[7]
Of the 504,141 skilled worker visas awarded since January 2021, 47% (237,426) have gone to individuals from whom the Home Office has not obtained a criminal record certificate.
The numbers arriving in each year as a work visa main applicant, without a criminal record certificate are as follows:
2021 - 47,734
2022 – 87,329
2023 – 80, 461
2024 (Q1) – 21,902
They are broken down by the most frequent nationalities below:
India: 82,074
United States: 13,537
Pakistan: 12,638
Philippines: 7,783
France: 7,678
South Africa: 7,552
Italy: 6,278
China: 5,771
Germany: 5,565
Turkey: 5,285
Spain: 4,888
Russia: 4,191
Australia: 3,831
Japan: 3,827
Nigeria: 3,809
Bangladesh: 3,656
Sri Lanka: 2,923
The law also stipulates that the dependents of those not required to produce a criminal record certificate are also exempt from this obligation.
The CMC has calculated the average ratio for non-health care main applicants, and the number of dependants they are likely to bring, for each nationality represented in the data above.
The data shows that approximately 154,000 dependants will have joined main applicants on a visa route in which a CRC is not required.
March 2017 legislation changes
In March 2017 the Home Office introduced changes to the immigration rules (HC1078) requiring those migrants arriving on a Tier 2 visa, to work in the education, health and care sectors, to provide a criminal record certificate from any country in which they have lived for 12 months or more in the previous ten years. The rules also stipulated that any dependents who they bring with them must also undergo a check.[8]
This built on measures introduced earlier in the year which required those arriving in the UK on a Tier 1 visa to undergo the same checks. At the time the immigration minister, Robert Goodwill confirmed that “the Home Office will continue to monitor implementation with a view to extending the requirement to other migrants in the future.”[9] This has not taken place.
[1] Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
[2] Foreign nationals 'twice as likely' to be arrested than Britons (telegraph.co.uk)
[3] Revealed: First migrant crime table (telegraph.co.uk)
[4] “ABSOLUTE Shambles” | Foreign Thugs Carried Out 120,000 Last Year (youtube.com)
[5] Guidance on the application process for criminal records checks overseas - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
[6] Guidance on the application process for criminal records checks overseas - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
[7] Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
[8] Statement of changes to the Immigration Rules: HC1078, 16 March 2017 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
[9] Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament