Ross Kennedy comments on sponsor licence revocation and refusal statistics in Personnel Today

25 August 2025

Commenting on a big hike in sponsor licence refusals and revocations revealed in the newest UK Home Office statistics in Personnel Today, Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law Senior Client Manager Ross Kennedy warns: “Only 56% of sponsor licences granted reflects growing scrutiny by the Home Office of companies’ business activities and their genuine need for sponsored workers.

“Around one in five work visas are being refused too, according to the latest quarterly statistics which is concerning. This is partly due to a Home Office crackdown on abuses by some sponsors of social care workers, but there has been greater scrutiny across other work visas too.”

There was an all time high for both suspensions and revocations of employers’ sponsor licences in the last quarter. From April to June this year, 869 employers had their licences suspended and 767 had them revoked. If a licence is revoked, employers not only lose the ability to sponsor more workers from abroad, but they lose the workers currently employed – which may also cause  employment law issues if their negligence or abuse led to this.

We can advise sponsors on how to avoid such serious sanctions, audit sponsor compliance and right to work practices and help sponsors facing sanctions with representations and steps they may be able to take to mitigate their situation.

The massive rise in enforcement actions may be down to the Home Office ramping up compliance visits and enforcement which had been somewhat neglected since the pandemic. It is also due to the Home Office applying harsher standards. Keeping on top of compliance is more important than ever.

The amount of employers using the sponsorship system to recruit continues to increase to fill skills gaps that can’t be filled domestically continues to increase. In 2024 there were 114,478 organisations with sponsor licences.

However, applications for licences are down: 34,186 decided in the year ending June 2025, compared to 50,489 in the year ending June 2024. More concercingly, only 19,177 licences were granted in this latest period (50% fewer than the year before).

This underlines the importance of good sponsorship advice. Vanessa Ganguin Immigration law has an enviable track record of successful applications and provides a boutique service, working with employers throughout the sponsorship process for swift results and to ensure nothing goes wrong.

You can read Personnel Today’s analysis of the latest Home Office figures in the link below.

Clear advice and keeping up to date with the latest sponsor regulations and compliance are more important than ever with enforcement activity on the rise.

You can contact our friendly immigration experts to discuss any applications you may need to make or an audit of your current HR practices and compliance.