The Home Office are set to escalate enforcement action – sponsors should expect a sharp rise in compliance visits and licence revocations.
The Home Office have announced that they will be increasing their focus on preventing illegal working and ensuring sponsor compliance. As part of this announcement, the Home Office confirmed that this will involve a rise in sponsor licence compliance visits, putting sponsors at greater risk of having their licence suspended or revoked.
A licence revocation is disastrous for a sponsor. Not only does it prevent the business from sponsoring any migrant workers going forward, but it also brings the sponsorship of all existing sponsored workers to an immediate end – meaning that these workers must cease employment and leave the UK. A business which is heavily reliant on sponsored workers could lose a significant portion of their workforce overnight.
The Home Office have also said that they will be taking more stringent action against employers who look to flout employment laws, such as those relating to the Right to Work and payment of the National Minimum Wage. Reading between the lines, this would suggest that, even if a business has complied with all their sponsor obligations, a breach of UK employment law could result in their licence being revoked. There are already significant financial penalties in place of up to £60,000 per worker for failing to carry out the correct Right to Work checks.
We anticipate a significant rise in Home Office enforcement action between now and the end of the year. Home Office visits can be unannounced. Is it therefore more important than ever for sponsors to ensure that they:
- have been acting in compliance with their sponsor licence obligations, including those relating to reporting and record-keeping;
- have carried out the correct Right to Work checks, in line with the appropriate Home Office guidance; and
- are compliant with all relevant UK employment law.
We would strongly recommend that you carry out an internal audit of your records and processes now – by the time that the Home Office come knocking, it will be too late to ensure compliance and protect your business.
We currently offer a package of audit services to suit all budgets.
If you would like to know more about what we can do to help or our audit services, please get in touch at [email protected]
