Judicial Review Decision on Sponsor Licence Revocation in the Healthcare Sector
In a sign that the Home Office remains active in checking compliance in sectors it deems to be ‘high risk’ there is another reported court case on sponsor licence revocation.
Our Immigration Solicitors regularly advise on your options if your sponsor licence is at risk of suspension or revocation. We can troubleshoot if you are at the early stages of Home Office compliance action or advise on the grounds for judicial review if the Home Office has revoked your sponsor licence.
In this blog, our Sponsorship Licence Lawyers consider the recently reported case of One Trees Estates Ltd, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 1644 (Admin) (26 June 2024).
UK Online and London-Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers
For immigration advice call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.
The case of One Trees Estates Limited
On 26 June 2024, the court gave judgment in R (on the application of One Trees Estates Limited) v SSHD [2024] EWHC 1644 (Admin).
The case involved a nursing home business that had its sponsor licence revoked by the Home Office. The nursing home reacted to the decision by seeking a judicial review of the Home Office's revocation of its licence.
It equally isn’t surprising that businesses in the healthcare sector are starting judicial review proceedings to challenge the revocation of their sponsor licences. Without a current sponsor licence, a nursing home or care home can't continue to sponsor its existing employees on Health and Care Worker Visas and nor can it recruit additional carers or senior carers on Health and Care Worker Visas. In any other industry, it may be possible with massive effort to recruit new staff from within the UK. In the care sector that isn’t going to work given the extent of the national shortage of carers and the financial constraints of increasing salaries to attract job applications from workers with British citizenship or workers who are settled in the UK with settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or Indefinite Leave to Remain.
There is also the issue of the Home Office imposing cooling-off periods when revoking a sponsor licence meaning business owners are prevented from sorting out the compliance issues that led to the revocation and then immediately asking their Sponsorship Licence Lawyers to submit a fresh sponsor licence application using the priority service to get the application processed as quickly as possible.
The facts in One Tree Estates Limited
The case report in One Trees Estates Limited indicates that the nursing home sponsored over 30 care workers on Health and Care Worker Visas. In April 2023, the company received a visit from Home Office officials carrying out an inspection and audit.
After interviews, the Home Office concluded that some sponsored workers on Health and Care Worker Visas were being sponsored as senior care workers but their roles did not meet the job criteria. There were other compliance issues but the sponsor licence was revoked on the basis that the company had not complied with the genuine vacancy test.
The company accepted that mistakes had been made and the errors amounted to mandatory grounds for sponsor licence revocation but said that the Home Office should have exercised discretion and not revoked the licence after conducting a global assessment of the effects of sponsor licence revocation. One of the company's grounds of complaint was that the Home Office had simply cut and pasted the reasons for sponsor licence revocation from the reasoning used in an earlier case.
The court found in favour of the Home Office – a decision that is a blow to any UK business with a sponsor licence and particularly those in the nursing home and care home sector where the implications of a sponsor licence revocation not only affect the business owners but the sponsored employees and their families, the care and nursing home residents and their extended families and not forgetting local authorities desperate to place elderly people in adult health care and NHS managers trying to reduce bed blocking by discharging those hospital patients who are fit enough to be cared for in a nursing or care home. Ultimately, it’s the argument that the NHS patient on the waiting list for a hip replacement or heart surgery is the one who is losing out the most when a company like One Tree Estates loses its sponsor licence or the care home resident forced to move to a care home miles away from friends and family.
The Home Office's use of discretion when considering sponsor licence revocation
In the One Trees Estates judicial review application, the nursing home relied on the case of Supporting Care Ltd v SSHD [2024] EWHC 68 (Admin). In that earlier SCL case, a care home had been successful in its judicial review application against the Home Office's decision to revoke its sponsor licence on the mandatory ground that the company had assigned certificates of sponsorship where a genuine vacancy did not exist.
In SCL, the decision to revoke the sponsor licence was quashed because the court held that the Home Office had failed to conduct a global assessment before revoking the licence. The SCL court ruling was at odds with a decision of the administrative court in R (Prestwick Care Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 3193.
In the Prestwick judicial review case, it was argued that the Home Office had failed to assess the wider impact of revocation of the sponsor licence on workers and residents. The court rejected that line of argument saying the Home Office's focus was immigration control and revocation of the licence was based on the trust relationship between the Home Office and the licence holder breaking down due to non-compliance. Assessing the economic and wider benefits of a care home provider retaining their sponsor licence was outside the remit of the Home Office according to the judge in the Prestwick case.
There seemed to be grounds for hope in the One Trees Estate judicial review claim that the judge would follow the decision in SCL rather than the approach of the court in Prestwick. Unfortunately for the workers and residents at One Tree that was not the case and the judge concluded that a global assessment of the impact of sponsor licence revocation was not necessary in a situation where revocation was on mandatory grounds. There is a potential escape route as the judge did refer to assessments of the exercise of discretion in exceptional cases where sponsor licences are being revoked on mandatory grounds.
Why is a sponsor licence being revoked?
The decision in One Tree Estates highlights the importance of understanding why the Home Office is considering revoking a sponsor licence. If the grounds being used are mandatory there is no requirement to assess the use of discretion. If revocation is on discretionary grounds, then an assessment of the exercise of discretion is required.
Sponsorship Licence Lawyers emphasise the importance of understanding the reasons for Home Office compliance action so you can argue your case for the exercise of discretion if your case is exceptional or in any situation where the Home Office is contemplating revocation on discretionary grounds.
Sponsr Licence Management Services and Immigration Law Training from OTS Solicitors
With a focus on compliance in the healthcare sector, our Sponsorship Licence Lawyers recommend the use of a Sponsor Licence Management Service combined with Immigration Law Training to reduce the risk of compliance issues leading to the revocation of your sponsor licence.
Our Sponsorship Licence Lawyers provide:
- Full Sponsor Licence Management Service
- Sector-specific Immigration Law Training
- In-person training or webinars and Zoom meetings
- General immigration training or known weak spots training. For example, on certificate of sponsorship allocation or absence reporting
- Mock audits by our Sponsorship Licence Lawyers
- Practical business focussed Immigration Law Training
Whatever the size of your nursing home or care home our Business Immigration Solicitors can provide the specialist Sponsor Licence Management Service or Immigration Training you need to safeguard your licence.
UK Online and London-Based Immigration Solicitors and Sponsorship Licence Lawyers
For immigration advice call OTS Solicitors on 0203 959 9123 or contact us online.
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