Overseas applications for the visa that brought tens of thousands of care workers to Britain have fallen to 7,500 in a year. Home Office figures published on 8 October show 7,500 main applicants applied for a Health and Care Worker visa from outside the UK in the 12 months to September 2026, down 63 per cent on the year before.

Arrival corridor at Heathrow Terminal 2, leading to the UK Border Force immigration checkpoint. Photo: Coolcaesar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), resized.