Home Office Crack Down on Sponsor Licence Non-Compliance

Posted onNovember 20, 2024

Sponsor licence compliance cannot be ignored if your company wants to keep its sponsor licence and be able to continue to sponsor overseas staff. Some businesses relaxed their sponsor licence compliance after the Home Office scrapped the requirement to renew licences every four years. Non-compliance isn’t a good idea as the Home Office resources used on licence renewal have been turned to compliance.

At OTS Solicitors our specialist Sponsorship Licence Lawyers provide a full Sponsor Licence Management Service or can help with sponsor licence compliance queries and problems, ranging from right-to-work check issues to license suspension and revocation. Early expert sponsorship licence advice can help you keep your sponsor licence.

UK Online and London-Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers

For sponsor licence advice call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

Sponsor Licence Revocation Statistics

The latest Home Office sponsorship transparency data can be found here. The report contains the statistics for quarter two of 2024. The figures for quarter three are due in late November 2024 but Immigration Solicitors say they doubt the figures will make good reading for sponsor licence holders.

The Q2 2024 Home Office data shows that to the end of 2024 quarter two:

833 skilled worker sponsor licences were suspended
709 licences were revoked

Those figures may not seem too bad but they need to be contrasted with the Home Office statistics for 2023. For the full year of 2023, only 569 licences were suspended and 337 licences were revoked.

Why the increase? It isn’t just that sponsor licence holders are more non-compliant as they are no longer focused on getting through a renewal application. It's also the extra allocation of Home Office resources to compliance and auditing.

Every Four Years

Some companies would call our Sponsorship Licence Lawyers every four years in a bit of a panic. They didn't use a Sponsor Licence Management Service to manage their licence and were a bit worried about their licence renewal. It was a case of 200% effort to get their licence renewal when it would have been easier and cheaper to have complied with all their licence reporting and recording obligations and have systems in place that they adhered to. That would have resulted in a hassle-free renewal application.

Licence for Life

With the end of the four-year licence renewal, some companies think they have a licence for life and no one will take it away. They may have read our immigration articles on the Home Office focussing on sponsor licence compliance in the healthcare sector and thought they were not at risk of a compliance visit as they are not running a nursing home or care home. Whilst the Home Office does concentrate its compliance efforts on some sectors more closely than others, such as healthcare or hospitality, the reality is that no company is safe.

Even when companies scrambled to get everything in order every four years it wasn’t ideal- waiting until you get a knock on the door from a Home Office official descending for an unannounced compliance visit is worse.

UK Visas & Immigration Requirements

Most companies fear HMRC investigations whether they have something to worry about or not. An HMRC investigation is a distraction at best. At worst, it can spell disaster. A UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) investigation is no different and that’s why it's essential to comply with sponsor licence reporting and recording duties to reduce the risk of an announced or unannounced compliance visit or to ensure that any visit doesn’t result in the suspension or loss of your licence.

Legislative Non-compliance

If your company thinks it has ticked every box with its sponsor licence compliance through using a Sponsor Licence Management Service or just great systems and Immigration Law Training your licence could still be at risk if your business has inadvertently not complied with employment legislation, such as:

Salary payment of the national minimum wage
Completion of right-to-work checks - these checks may catch more employers in 2025 because of the introduction of e-Visas, the end of Biometric Residence Permits and changes to right-to-work checks. There has also been an increase in penalties for failure to carry out a check or not conducting it in accordance with the guidance in force at the time it was carried out. Repeat offenders can be fined £60,000 per worker

Sponsorship Licence Advice for Employers

Whatever the size of your company you need to meet your licence compliance obligations. This can be especially tough for start-ups and smaller employers who don’t have experienced key personnel to help them manage their sponsor licence or staff who don’t understand the consequences of non-compliance.

Our specialist Sponsorship Licence Lawyers recommend that all employers with sponsor licences consider:

Using a Sponsor Licence Management Service to manage the sponsor licence for them – this can not only reduce risk but costs as well
Investing in Immigration Law Training for key personnel so they are up to date with the latest changes in immigration rules and are aware of how changes to Biometric Residence Permits and e-Visas will affect right-to-work checks and the impact of getting these checks wrong on the continuation of the sponsor licence
Carrying out annual audits preferably conducted by their Sponsorship Licence Lawyers who can highlight issues that may crop up if the Home Office were to conduct a compliance visit. Early identification of potential issues can prevent them from becoming a problem
Listening to honest feedback – time and again HR professionals acknowledge that sponsor licence reporting and recording duties can take second place to other HR duties, such as hiring and firing. That’s why internal or external audits are so important as well as listening to the feedback provided by key personnel and acting on it. If staff are too busy consider using a Sponsor Licence Management Service freeing up HR time for specialist HR activities or consider appointing an extra Level 2 User to ease the administrative burden
Not procrastinating – the temptation is to deal with time-critical issues, for example, the employment tribunal hearing date. Routine sponsor licence compliance can therefore get missed and without the requirement to renew your sponsor licence minor reporting infractions can continue without being spotted until the problems are endemic. Whilst your company may not be under sponsor licence time pressures it is vital to think that every day could be the day of an unannounced Home Office visit and not delay in preparing for it

Skilled overseas employees are crucial for the continued success of many UK companies. Our Legal 500 ranked Sponsorship Licence Lawyers can help your business ensure it is ready if the Home Office decides to check that your key personnel are complying with all the reporting and recording obligations and aren’t at risk of losing their sponsor licence.

UK Online and London-Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers

For sponsor licence advice call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.

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