Official statistics show that fewer and fewer people from abroad are trying to work in the NHS or social care.

Statistics show that the outgoing Conservative government issued a total of around 286,382 work visas in the year to June 2024 – 11% fewer than the previous year.

Detailed Home Office data shows that it approved 89,085 visas for the health and care sector in the year to June 2024 – more than 80% fewer than in April to June of the previous year.

The decline in workers wanting to come to the UK is due to the previous Conservative government imposing restrictions on foreign workers and their families in an effort to reduce overall immigration.

Former Home Secretary James Cleverly announced the new rules limiting the number of foreign workers in December last year, when figures showed net migration was reaching near record levels.

These restrictions included new minimum wage regulations for both workers and their family members.

The latest figures also show that around 432,000 visas were issued to overseas students to enter the UK in the year to June 2024 – a total decrease of 13% on the previous year.

In the first six months of 2024, the number of visas issued to family members of students fell by 81%.

Dr Ben Brindle of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, an independent centre that analyses the statistics, said the drop in visa applications should theoretically lead to a drop in net migration – figures to be published at a later date.

“We do not yet know how many of the recently arrived students will stay in the UK long-term and any recovery in the allocation of health and care visas would also slow the decline,” he said.

“Yet there are strong signs that Labour can deliver on its commitment to reduce net migration from the unusually high levels the UK has experienced recently – primarily due to trends that were already emerging long before it was elected.”

Before the general election earlier this year, Labour pledged to reduce net migration. It did not specify a target, but said it wanted to reduce Britain’s dependence on foreign workers through labour and training, particularly in key sectors such as health and construction.

Immigration Minister Seema Malhotra accused the previous Conservative government of a “complete failure to tackle the skills shortage, which has resulted in many employers having to rely on recruiting workers from abroad”.

However, she promised to continue some of the previous government’s measures, including reducing the number of family members allowed to move to the UK to join relatives.

Mr Cleverly said he had “taken action” as Home Secretary which was now leading to a decline in net migration.

The vast majority of immigrants to the UK are legally resident workers, students and their families. Asylum claims – part of the refugee protection system – are counted separately.

By June, around 97,000 people had sought refuge in Great Britain, 8 percent fewer than the previous year.

This figure also includes 38,784 irregular or clandestine arrivals, 80 percent of whom crossed the English Channel in small boats.

The number of people waiting for a decision on their application for protection was 118,882.

This pile of unresolved cases includes a large number of arrivals from the past two years. This increase has become even greater after the previous conservative government stopped processing most asylum applications and planned to send some people to Rwanda instead.

The new Labour government has instructed its authorities to work through the backlog and determine who are genuine refugees and who should be deported from the country.

“Today’s statistics show the utter chaos in which our asylum system has been left,” said Ms Malhotra.

However, Mr Cleverly criticised the government’s decision to reverse Rwanda’s deportation policy, saying no decision had yet been made on what to do with “people who arrive here and whose asylum claims are rejected from countries like Afghanistan, Syria or Iran”.

“We cannot send them back to their country of origin. We no longer have a safe third country to send them to. So the government has to answer this question,” he added.