Sponsor Licence Compliance Visit

This article is to address sponsor licence compliance visits. In the first quarter of 2024 we saw a big increase in the number of sponsor licences being suspended or revoked by the Home Office.  This follows a noticeable uptick in compliance visits being carried out.

Why are the Home Office cracking down?

The number of licenced sponsors has increased significantly since Brexit, so an increase in compliance action may be expected. However, there have been a large number of reported cases of abuse of the skilled worker sponsorship system, particularly in the care sector. As a result there have been a large number of suspensions and revocations in that sector.

What prompts the Home Office to undertake a sponsor licence compliance visit?

When a sponsor is granted a sponsor licence, they are agreeing to accept a degree of responsibility for immigration control. The Home Office expect that responsibility to be taken seriously. Sponsors are expected to understand how the sponsorship system works and have the necessary systems in place to meet them. If there are any concerns about this, then the Home Office will take action against you.

Compliance visits can take place before a sponsor licence application is granted if the Home Office have any concerns about the organisation making the application. They can also carry out a visit at any time that the sponsor holds a licence.

The Home Office can take action against a sponsor for a number of reasons. These include receiving intelligence about an organisation that gives cause for concern, or the sponsor issuing a large number of certificates of sponsorship. We have often seen compliance action taken where the Home Office identify that a sponsor does not have current employees filling key roles on the licence, or where  login details have been shared between staff. 

What happens at a sponsor licence compliance visit?

Visits can be announced or unannounced. The compliance officer will always want to interview the key personnel named on the licence. If the sponsor already has sponsored workers, then the compliance officer will usually interview some or all of them. If your workers are on a client site, an officer will expect to be able to enter that site in order to interview any sponsored workers on those premises.

A compliance visit is not a box-ticking exercise. As well as checking your HR files, the officer will want the sponsor to demonstrate how their systems work in practice.

What are the Home Office looking for?

The compliance officer will be checking that;

• the sponsor’s HR systems are sufficiently robust to ensure they are meeting their sponsor duties;
• whether the sponsor or the sponsor’s activities pose a threat to immigration control and whether they are abusing the system in any way;
• whether the original number of CoS requested on the sponsor application or annual request is justified;
• whether those working with the sponsor are complying with any conditions of their leave to stay in the UK;
• whether the sponsor continues to have a trading presence;
• whether sponsored workers were recruited to fill genuine vacancies which meet
• the requirements of the relevant immigration route in respect of skill level and
• pay.

What happens after a compliance visit?

After a compliance visit, the officer will write up a report. If they have concerns, then your licence may be revoked, suspended or downgraded.

If the Home Office take compliance action, you will typically be given 21 days to respond to the report. The Home office will then decide whether to revoke the licence, downgrade it, or take no action.

There is no right of appeal to a licence revocation. The only way to challenge the Home office decision is through a judicial review in the High Court. There are limited grounds on which this type of case can be brought and it’s a long and expensive process. Even if you succeed, the High Court do not overturn the decision. They can typically only order the Home Office to re-make the decision. 

How can we prepare for a visit?

All sponsors should review the information about the organisation on a regular basis to make sure that no details have changed. You can also do a desk-top review of your records to make sure that you can easily find everything that an officer might ask to see.

However, the best way to prepare for a possible compliance visit is to have a mock audit in order to stress-test your systems. This can include interviewing key staff about the licence as well as a  detailed review of all recordkeeping and reporting. A mock audit can also provide invaluable compliance training for the staff involved.

OTB Legal provide mock audits to our clients all over the country. If you would like to discuss your organisation’s sponsor compliance, please contact the business immigration team at OTB Legal who would be happy to assist.