The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Seema Malhotra)
The Home Office is committed to minimising abuse of the visa and immigration system by unscrupulous employers. We are now setting out our first steps to deliver on our manifesto commitment to ban rogue employers from sponsoring overseas workers. We are setting out stronger controls to prevent employers who flout UK employment laws from sponsoring overseas workers, alongside going after those who show signs of non-compliance. No organisation is above the law or too big to fail.
For the first time, visa and employment laws will be brought into close alignment, to ensure strong protections for those who come to work in the UK, especially in important areas of our economy such as adult social care.
The Government will deliver legislation for the flagship Fair Work Agency, ensuring fair and strong employment rights for all. Through this legislation, we will ensure that any business found guilty of serious employment law breaches, such as failing to comply with the national minimum wage, will have robust action taken against them—up to and including having their visa sponsorship licences refused or revoked. Alongside this, we are strengthening powers to ensure the compliance of those on the register of licensed sponsors.
Over the last two years, there have been a growing number of allegations about sponsors seeking to charge workers for sponsoring them, particularly in the care sector. Where these charges are inappropriate, individuals can fall into work-related debt and experience a significant amount of harm. To combat this, we are now taking action to ensure that if a business wishes to recruit internationally, they will be required to pay for certificates of sponsorship, sponsor licences and the associated administration themselves. This will end the intolerable practice of recovering these costs from workers, which has led to the exploitation and unfair treatment of staff, particularly care workers who have been left in debt to their employers. These rules will apply to the skilled worker route first and will be in force by the end of the year. We intend to build on this in due course, widening it to other sponsored employment routes.
This Government are also taking robust action against businesses that show signs of non-compliance such as committing minor visa rule breaches. Current rules impose action plans on businesses for only three months, but today we are committing to extending this to up to 12 months. While these longer action plans are in place, employers will be restricted in how they can use their licence, including limiting or removing the ability to sponsor overseas workers. If they do not comply with the action plan, fail to pay for the plan or make the necessary improvements by the end of their action plan, their sponsorship licence will be revoked.
We will take strong action against employers who do not comply with the rules, where necessary revoking their sponsor licence. We will strengthen this by making it harder for those with a long-term record of non-compliance to return to the sponsor register. The current penalties for breaking visa rules are too weak, with all revoked businesses facing only 12 months of sanctions—regardless of their track record. That is why we will be introducing longer cooling-off periods for businesses that repeatedly flout these rules or commit serious immigration breaches, barring them from applying for a sponsorship licence over this period and therefore hiring overseas workers.
This set of new measures shows how seriously the Government take maintaining the integrity of the visa and immigration system, ensuring that those who would seek to abuse the system face strong consequences. These measures are part of wider efforts to tackle the root causes behind the UK’s long-term reliance on international workers and wider action to link migration policy with skills and wider labour market policy. All those who work in the UK deserve decent employment with decent employers—this Government are working to ensure that happens.
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