Ross Kennedy’s comments on Home Office reversal on right to work checks for sponsors in Personnel Today

27 May 2026

Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law’s Ross Kennedy explains why employers with a sponsor licence will be relieved by the latest guidance for sponsors in Personnel Today. In a shock reversal of Home Office guidance published in March, then April, the latest updates published on 20 May 2026 have removed wording which required employers sponsoring workers to conduct right to work checks on anyone they “directly engage”.

Ross Kennedy tells the publication for HR professionals: “In March the update to guidance for employers with a sponsor licence was very unclear leaving sponsoring businesses confused as to their right-to-work duties. The Home Office clarified the guidance in April by insisting employers with a sponsor licence must conduct right to work checks on anyone they “directly engage” – even non-employees. That left businesses potentially liable to have to check the right to work of self-employed plumbers called out to fix a leak.

“Under the previous wording sponsors were at high risk of losing their sponsor licence if they were not checking the right to work of people they were not even responsible for. You weren’t employing or sponsoring them – they were third parties and yet you were the one at risk.

“Losing a sponsor licence means losing the ability to recruit international workers and losing the international workers you currently sponsor along with all the employment law consequences that may entail.”

Ross Kennedy adds: “This reversal takes the guidance back to the situation before March, which will be a massive relief to personnel teams. Sponsors now only need to do right to work checks now on people they do employ and anyone they sponsor.”

Many sponsors and their representatives – including our firm – wrote to the Home Office asking for clarification – would sponsors be required to conduct checks on window cleaners for instance, were any self-employed contractors included? The guidance appears to have been redrafted again to remove requirements to check all those “directly engaged” in response – at least until the government defines the scope of the UK’s new right to work regime for all employers later this year following recent legislation.

The backdrop to all this is an expanded right to work regime we expect to come into force later this year, following the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. The legislation included right to work checks and the large financial penalties they provide protection against being broadened from pertaining to employees to encompass employment “and other working arrangements”. The UK Government’s consultation on how a new right to work code would include “other working arrangements” ended in December, with no timeline yet for implementation. We expect all employers will have to comply with a new code perhaps as soon as this autumn when the relevant provisions of the legislation commence.

It is crucial that HR teams stay on top of all updates to sponsor guidance and compliance if they are sponsoring any workers. Please feel free to contact Ross@vanessaganguin.com if you would like to discuss any of these changes or an audit of your sponsor or right to work compliance. With increasing UK Visa and Immigration enforcement action, it’s important to ensure you are on top of the latest updates to these practices.

Ross Kennedy and James Lamont have also written this explainer on the other major updates to sponsorship guidance published by the Home Office last week. These include:

• Sponsors don’t need to conduct right to work checks on non-sponsored workers they “directly engage” rather than employ. NB: The guidance insists sponsors must perform checks on all sponsored staff – whether employees or not and all unsponsored employees.
• Expansion in sponsors’ record keeping duties to include records of right to work checks on all employees.
• The Home Office will likely revoke a sponsor licence if a sponsored worker doesn’t have relevant right to work permission.
• Refusing and revoking sponsor licence applications when it is presumed they are primarily constructed to bring someone to the UK. Does this suitability ground leave to revocation also?
• How to satisfy the Home Office an organisation is operating or trading to qualify for a sponsor licence. Or is it only the operating or trading ground that can lead to refusal as well as revocation? If so we need to reference that here?

Please do not hesitate to contact a lawyer if you are unsure about your weight to work or sponsorship compliance.

Ross Kennedy has a wealth of experience working with individuals on their immigration and nationality routes, as well as corporate clients of all sizes, from start-ups, SMEs and charitable or religious organisations to large multinational companies.

He regularly advises on applications for licences to sponsor skilled workers (including on UKVI compliance requirements, mergers, restructuring and TUPE, as well as training HR teams) and assists with visa applications for skilled workers, temporary workers, sole representatives, as well as creative and sports personalities. Ross advises on immigration routes to set up businesses in the UK such as the such as the UK Expansion Worker visa, Global Talent visa or Innovator Founder route. He also advises private clients on personal applications, from high net worth and highly skilled clients to family, UK ancestry and British citizenship.

Photograph of Ross Kennedy (c) Tina-K Photography