Firms given foreign carer licences after breaching labour laws

Nearly 200 care providers have been given government licences to bring foreign nurses to the UK despite having previously violated labour laws, according to a study that highlights widespread employment problems in the social care sector.

- Kiran Stacey

The report by the Work Rights Centre shows 177 companies in England have been given licences to sponsor carers, even while publicly available information shows them to have violated workers' protections in the past.

The study gives further evidence of major gaps in the government's oversight of its foreign carer regime, under which hundreds of thousands of nurses and carers have travelled to Britain for work, only for many to experience exploitation and poor working conditions.