Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of allowing businesses and their representative bodies who obtain licensed sponsor status the ability to issue directly certificates of sponsorship for workers.

Businesses who are licensed sponsors may already directly assign certificates of sponsorship to workers. The exception is where the Tier 2 (General) annual limit applies, in which cases employers must request certificates under a monthly allocation. This ensures that places go to workers with the skills most in need and who will make the greatest economic contributions.

The entity sponsoring the worker needs to be sufficiently aware of their activities – that means the employer, rather than a representative body, is best suited to be the sponsor.