Sponsor duties and responsibilities

Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis

When an organisation obtains a sponsor licence it must comply with a number of duties and responsibilities to the Home Office. When it applies for the licence, it is declaring that it is capable of complying with all of these. These include:

  1. •

    monitoring immigration status and preventing illegal employment

  2. •

    maintaining migrant contact details

  3. •

    other record keeping

  4. •

    monitoring and reporting migrant activity

  5. •

    ensuring that relevant professional registrations and accreditations have been obtained

  6. •

    reporting various changes of circumstances to the sponsor

  7. •

    complying with the law, and

  8. •

    co-operating with the Home Office

The consequences of failing to comply with the duties can be serious, including the licence being downgraded or revoked and the permission of existing sponsored employees being curtailed.

It is open to the Home Office to visit an organisation or carry out a digital compliance inspection over video-conferencing facilities, to review whether, and to what extent, it will be able to meet these duties and responsibilities. It will also check its own records of previous dealings with the organisation. Inspecting officers will want to see how relevant human resources

To view the latest version of this document and thousands of others like it, sign-in with LexisNexis or register for a free trial.

Existing user? Sign-in TAKE A FREE TRIAL
Powered by Lexis+®
Latest Immigration News

Home Office appoints John Tuckett as Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration

The Home Office has announced the appointment of John Tuckett as the new Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI), following pre-appointment scrutiny by the Home Affairs Select Committee earlier in 2025. Tuckett replaces David Bolt, who has served as interim ICIBI since June 2024. The ICIBI monitors and reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of the UK's border, immigration and citizenship system, making recommendations directly to the Home Secretary. The government is also recruiting a new Immigration Services Commissioner to replace Tuckett in that role, with the appointment expected to be confirmed in due course.

Conservatives announce plans to withdraw from the ECHR and abolish the Immigration Tribunal

The leader of the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch MP, announced at the party conference on 5 October 2025 that the next Conservative election manifesto will contain a commitment to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and repeal the Human Rights Act 1998. This follows the completion of an advice document by the Shadow Attorney General, Lord Wolfson, which looked at whether remaining signed up to the Convention would constrain a future Conservative government in the following areas: making a ‘stringent’ border policy possible; protecting soldiers from ‘vexatious’ legal claims, especially over Northern Ireland and overseas operations; placing blanket restrictions on foreign nationals in terms of social housing and benefits; setting mandatory sentences for serious crimes and banning ‘disruptive’ protests; and delivering infrastructure and energy projects without extensive human rights and climate-based litigation. In his separate address to the conference, the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp MP, asserted that current judicial interpretations of the ECHR impede effective border control and the deportation of foreign offenders. He also announced that, following withdrawal, the party proposed to legislate for a Borders plan that would prohibit all asylum and other claims made by those entering the UK unlawfully, including those arriving by small boats. Such individuals would be removed immediately to their country of origin, or, where that is not possible, to a designated safe third country such as Rwanda, within one week of arrival.

Institute for Government analyses Starmer's proposals to reinterpret ECHR in immigration cases

The Institute for Government has analysed Prime Minister Keir Starmer's proposal to change how UK courts interpret the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and other international treaties in immigration cases. The former Treasury Solicitor, Sir Jonathan Jones examines how Parliament could pass legislation setting out specific interpretations of Articles 3 and 8 of the ECHR, while the government maintains its commitment to remaining within the Convention. The analysis notes that claimants could still apply to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which would not be bound by UK domestic legislation.

Sudden end of right of appeal for Article 8 upgrade and long residence refusals

The Home Office has updated it's 'Rights of Appeal caseworker guidance' to say that the Home Office will no longer be issuing appealable refusal decisions where a person already has leave to remain in the UK. Previously the guidance still provided for a right of appeal if the person did not already have leave to remain on human rights grounds. A common scenario where this arose was appeals against a refusal on the ten-year long residence settlement route. Now if a person already holds any form of leave to remain (except 3C leave), the Home Office will not issue an appealable refusal decision and the only remedy would be judicial review, unless the refusal attracts a right of administrative review (which would not usually arise for human rights applications).

View Immigration by content type :  
News
Practice notes
Precedents
Q&As

Popular documents

Is it possible to add further branches to a sponsor licence where all of the entities have the same

Is it possible to add further branches to a sponsor licence where all of the entities have the same parent company, but the parent company or head office itself is not the licence holder? Also, what is the situation if one operating company applies for the licence, but the intention is to

Priority between loss reliefs in loss making companies

Priority between loss reliefs in loss making companiesWhy does it matter?A company that is a member of a group and has incurred any of the types of losses available for surrender by way of group relief may, without any further rules, have more than one way in which to use the loss. There are a

If a rentcharge is shown as being informally exonerated on title information, does this apply to the

If a rentcharge is shown as being informally exonerated on title information, does this apply to the current registered owner? Or does the informal exoneration only apply to the parties to the document which informally exonerated the rentcharge?This Q&A considers the situation where, at some

Can shares in a limited company that have not been paid-up at all be cancelled?

Can shares in a limited company that have not been paid-up at all be cancelled?A limited company having a share capital may not alter that share capital, except in the ways listed in section 617 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006). Shares in a company cannot simply be cancelled without following an
Is it possible to add further branches to a sponsor licence where all of the entities have the same

Is it possible to add further branches to a sponsor licence where all of the entities have the same

Is it possible to add further branches to a sponsor licence where all of the entities have the same parent company, but the parent company or head office itself is not the licence holder? Also, what is the situation if one operating company applies for the licence, but the intention is to

Priority between loss reliefs in loss making companies

Priority between loss reliefs in loss making companies

Priority between loss reliefs in loss making companiesWhy does it matter?A company that is a member of a group and has incurred any of the types of losses available for surrender by way of group relief may, without any further rules, have more than one way in which to use the loss. There are a

If a rentcharge is shown as being informally exonerated on title information, does this apply to the

If a rentcharge is shown as being informally exonerated on title information, does this apply to the

If a rentcharge is shown as being informally exonerated on title information, does this apply to the current registered owner? Or does the informal exoneration only apply to the parties to the document which informally exonerated the rentcharge?This Q&A considers the situation where, at some

Can shares in a limited company that have not been paid-up at all be cancelled?

Can shares in a limited company that have not been paid-up at all be cancelled?

Can shares in a limited company that have not been paid-up at all be cancelled?A limited company having a share capital may not alter that share capital, except in the ways listed in section 617 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006). Shares in a company cannot simply be cancelled without following an