Share Now
on August 23, 2024
Read Time: 8 Minutes
It might have come to the attention of some readers of our online news section that there have been quite a few reported instances lately of sponsor licences being revoked from employers in the UK care sector.
You may have seen stories like this one, for example, stating that the Home Office had revoked a sponsor licence from a care company in Scotland, amid concerns about how the firm was treating staff.
The organisation in question was the Hawick-based Support Services First Choice Limited. According to the BBC report, this firm provided healthcare workers who supported people living in their own homes across the Borders region.
Recently issued numbers appear to support the impression of licensed sponsors – including care homes – having come under more intense scrutiny from the Home Office over the last few months.
Data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in June indicated a marked rise in the number of Skilled Worker sponsor licence suspensions and revocations during 2024’s first quarter.
Specifically, the Home Office suspended 309 Skilled Worker sponsor licences in the period from January to March 2024, in addition to revoking 210 licences. This far surpassed the activity levels that had been seen at any point since Brexit.
It is likely that one key factor in the climbing numbers of sponsor licence revocations among care-sector employers has been recent changes around visas for care workers.
There have been record numbers of sponsored visas in the care sector since the UK’s departure from the European Union (EU). With effect from 11th March 2024, however, care providers in England have no longer been permitted to sponsor new care workers under the Skilled Worker visa category unless they are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The same 11th March date also saw newly sponsored care workers prevented from bringing their family members with them to the UK.
These rule changes had been brought in following a report from former Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) David Neal, which had found evidence of “shocking” implementation of care visas.
This extremely critical report had discovered an instance of 275 Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) being granted to a non-existent care home. There had also been a case of 1,234 certificates being granted to a company that had stated it only had four employees at the time of a sponsor licence being approved for it.
It seems probable, then, that the new rules taking effect was followed shortly afterwards by sponsor licence revocations and suspensions for a number of care-sector employers that had failed to comply with them.
An UK employer that wishes to employ someone to work for them from outside the UK is normally required to hold a sponsor licence from the Home Office in order to do this.
There are some groups of foreign nationals that can be hired without the need for a sponsor licence. These include Irish citizens, those with indefinite leave to remain in the UK, and those with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
If an employer is successfully granted a sponsor licence, the organisation will be expected to fulfil certain duties throughout the period the licence is valid.
In the event, however, of the Home Office believing that a licensed sponsor has committed a serious breach of these duties – or that the sponsor poses a threat to immigration control – the department may decide to revoke the employer’s sponsor licence.
Sponsor licence revocation is a highly damaging and punitive step, profoundly impacting on the given organisation’s operations. If your organisation has its sponsor licence revoked, it will no longer have permission to lawfully employ sponsored workers across any of the sponsorship visa categories.
The revocation of your business’s sponsor licence would also mean that any sponsored employees would have their visas curtailed. They would therefore need to either find employment with an alternative sponsor or leave the UK.
Another especially serious effect of the Home Office revoking your organisation’s sponsor licence, is that you would not be permitted to apply for a new sponsor licence until a specified “cooling off” period has passed. In most cases, this is 12 months from the date of the sponsor licence revocation.
If the Home Office has formally notified your organisation that there is a risk of its sponsorship licence being revoked, please call Cranbrook Legal’s experts in UK immigration law, on 0208 215 0053, for advice and guidance. It is of the utmost importance in this situation to make sure your organisation takes the right steps, given the potential implications for your business.
It is, of course, critically important for care homes in England to adhere to the rule changes made in the spring. However, one recent high-profile case underlines the importance of care homes being equally vigilant in their compliance with all the Home Office’s sponsorship requirements.
The case in question culminated in a High Court ruling in Prestwick Care Ltd & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 3193 (Admin). The judgement upheld a decision by the Home Office to revoke the sponsor licence of Prestwick Care Limited, a major care home business in North East England.
The corporate group employed 857 workers and operated 15 care homes, providing 813 beds in total. The business had held a sponsor licence since 27th November 2008, and it employed 219 Skilled Workers under the Health and Care visa scheme.
The Home Office carried out a compliance visit in October 2022, and made the decision to suspend the company’s sponsor licence in December 2022. This was on the grounds of multiple breaches of the organisation’s sponsor duties. The contraventions included paying migrants a lower salary than what their CoS stated, as well as recouping the immigration skills charge from migrant workers, and providing incorrect job descriptions.
When the Home Office wrote to Prestwick Care in relation to the sponsor licence suspension, the company admitted to a breach in its response. The business said this breach would be corrected. In February 2023, however, the department revoked the firm’s sponsor licence.
The care-home operator sought to challenge the Home Office’s decision via a judicial review, on the grounds of it being procedurally unfair. The company said that the Home Office’s suspension letter had not invited the business to submit representations, which constituted the department acting unfairly.
The court rejected the care-home business’s argument, ruling that the onus was on the sponsor licence holder to supply the evidence necessary to address the Home Office’s concerns, and that the firm had failed to do so.
The court also made clear that sponsorship was not a fundamental right. Instead, it was a privilege that was liable to be removed if there were reasonable grounds to suspect the holder of the sponsor licence was in breach of immigration law.
If your organisation has its sponsorship licence revoked, you won’t have any right of appeal against this. There may, however, be grounds for judicial review of the revocation decision. The term “judicial review” refers to a type of court proceeding, whereby a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action that a public body makes.
A judicial review, then, is a challenge to the way in which a public body’s decision has been made. It does not address the rights and wrongs of the conclusion itself.
So, the focus of a judicial review in your organisation’s case will not be on whether the Home Office was right or wrong to revoke your organisation’s sponsor licence, but instead on whether the right procedures were followed in the department reaching its decision.
If your organisation does have its sponsor licence revoked, applying for a judicial review may not be the best course of action. You might, instead, be better advised from a financial and commercial perspective to accept the revocation, and to spend the cooling-off period addressing the issues that led to your firm’s sponsor licence being revoked. To discuss with our specialists in UK immigration law what your next steps could be in this situation, please call 0208 215 0053.
As we have addressed in this article, there have been recent rule changes impacting on care-worker visas, that an employer in this sector could be easily caught out by. However, there may also be further compliance risks that your organisation needs to tackle.
Such issues as excessive numbers of Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) being assigned within short timeframes, sponsored workers being paid below the salary stated on their CoS, and inadequate sponsor recordkeeping, have led to care homes losing their sponsor licences recently. Your sponsored workers not carrying out the duties outlined on their CoS, or your care home failing to record visa expiry dates, could also create the risk of a revoked sponsor licence.
Our own expertise in this area here at Cranbrook Legal encompasses the likes of sponsorship licence management for level 1 and level 2 users, UK right to work checks, and immigration audits. Drawing upon this knowhow, we can help your care home avoid the risk of sponsor licence suspension or revocation, so that you can hire and retain overseas staff.
Please fill out and submit our online contact form to arrange a free consultation. Our central London-based specialists in UK immigration law have an excellent track record of assisting care-sector employers with sponsor licence applications, management, and renewals, as well as all related aspects of compliance.
How Can We Help You?
