5 tips for maintaining sponsor compliance amid Home Office crackdown

21.11.2024

The number of UK businesses holding a sponsor licence to recruit overseas workers is at an all-time high, despite recent attempts by the government to reduce net migration.

According to Home Office data, as of August 2024 over 100,000 organisations held a sponsor licence under the ‘Worker’ category, which permits employers to hire foreign nationals under the Skilled Worker visa route.

The rise in sponsor licence applications has been driven by businesses adapting to post-Brexit immigration rules and a growing reliance on foreign workers to alleviate skills shortages in key sectors.

Whilst the demand for international talent from UK employers shows no signs of slowing down, the Home Office is taking action to clamp down on those employers who breach the immigration rules and fail to uphold their compliance duties as a licenced sponsor.

In parallel with the growing number of licensed sponsors, the Home Office has stepped up its compliance enforcement efforts in 2024, leading to a surge in sponsor licence suspensions and revocations.

If a sponsor is found to have breached the Immigration Rules or failed to uphold their sponsor duties, the Home Office may take action against them.

This adverse action may include downgrading, suspending or revoking the sponsor licence. This can have serious consequences for your business and any migrant workers you are currently sponsoring.

When a licence is downgraded or suspended, the sponsor is generally not allowed to sponsor any new migrants whilst an investigation takes place, but existing sponsored migrants are usually unaffected during this time. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, a suspended licence will either be reinstated or revoked.

The action of revoking a sponsor licence is generally reserved for the most serious compliance breaches and means that the licence will be cancelled entirely. In this case, the employer must stop sponsoring any existing workers, and those individuals will usually have to leave the UK or apply for a new visa.

According to Home Office data, in the first half of 2024, 833 Skilled Worker sponsors had their licence suspended and 709 Skilled Worker sponsors had their licence revoked. This is a dramatic increase compared to the previous year. During the whole of 2023, 569 Skilled Worker sponsor licences were suspended and 337 were revoked.

This shows the increased focus on sponsor compliance by the Home Office is having real consequences for some businesses. To help your business avoid adverse action, there are steps you can take to ensure you remain compliant with your sponsor duties.

When developing your compliance strategy, five essential areas you should consider are as follows:

1. Maintain accurate records

As a licenced sponsor, you are required to keep accurate, up to date records on your sponsored workers and the running of your organisation. These documents can be kept in electronic or paper format and must be made available to the Home Office if requested.

You must keep certain documents for each worker you sponsor. Appendix D of the sponsor guidance lists these documents and how long you must keep them.

2. Report key changes in a timely manner

Reporting is a key part of your sponsor duties and you must tell the Home Office about any significant changes that affect your sponsored workers or your organisation.

Such changes must be reported within set time limits as specified in the guidance for sponsors – usually within 10 working days or within 20 working days, depending on the change(s) you are reporting.

3. Run regular audits

To ensure sponsors are complying with their sponsor duties, the Home Office conducts regular checks and may visit your business premises at any time, announced or unannounced. Carrying out regular mock audits can help identify any gaps in your internal systems and processes and ensure your business is ready for a visit from Home Office compliance officers.

4. Ensure wider compliance

Sponsors are required to comply with all aspects of the Immigration Rules and the guidance for sponsors, as well as wider UK law. As well as ensuring you are offering ‘genuine vacancies’ for your sponsored workers, you must comply with UK employment law, including, but not limited to, National Minimum Wage, the Working Time Regulations, and (where required) enrolling your employees on a pension scheme.

The Home Office will take the appropriate compliance actions if a prospective or existing sponsor is engaging, or has ever engaged, in any behaviour or actions that are deemed ‘detrimental to the wider public good’.

5. Provide training for your teams

Changes to the UK’s immigration rules and the guidance for sponsors are regularly introduced and sponsors must ensure their knowledge is up to date at all times. Providing regular training for your HR team, your sponsor licence key personnel, and anyone within your organisation responsible for the recruitment of migrant workers, is an essential part of any good compliance strategy.

Smith Stone Walters can provide expert support and guidance on sponsor compliance for employers. For more information about our UK immigration services and how we can help your business manage its migrant workforce, please contact us today.