Home Office revokes record number of sponsor licences, but lack of fines means employers shrug it off
Today’s migration transparency data release published by the Home Office revealed record-high enforcement action against Skilled Worker visa sponsors. As many as 4,403 licences were revoked in the 12 months to June 2026, as the crackdown extended beyond health and care, into retail, accommodation and administration sectors. This is the highest number of revocations in any 12-month period since the UK transitioned to an employer-sponsored visa system in 2020.
But while Home Office officials focus on taking action against companies, the workers they employ are hung out to dry. All the while, save for the 12-month ban on international recruitment, offending employers face no fines and can continue their operations.
We argue that rule-breaking sponsors deserve tougher penalties, and workers must be assisted with accessing redress. The Home Office should establish a referral pathway to the Fair Work Agency, so that migrants who are jointly affected by labour exploitation and licence revocations can be supported to access financial remedy and support via the National Referral Mechanism for modern slavery.
Enforcement activity against sponsors at a historic high
Between July 2025 and June 2026, the Home Office suspended 4,840 and revoked 4,403 Skilled Worker sponsor licences. This represents a 134% increase in suspensions and a 141% increase in revocations compared with the 12-month period before, when just 2,068 licences were suspended and 1,828 licences were revoked. It also means that the Home Office’s enforcement action streak, which started last autumn, is reaching new records as evidence of worker abuse on the visa route mounts (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Number of Skilled Worker sponsor licence revocations and suspensions, Q1 2020-Q2 2026
While official statistics do not provide a sectoral breakdown, Freedom of Information (FOI) data obtained by the Work Rights Centre from the Home Office shows that a plurality of licence revocations were in employers operating in health and care, a sector that has long been mired by reports of worker exploitation and non-compliance.
As many as 872 licenses were revoked for employers in health and care (“human health and social work activities”) between Q1 2022 and Q3 2025, followed some way behind by 512 revocations in “other service activities”, and 497 revocations in “accommodation and food service activities” (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Sponsor licence revocations by industry, Q1 2022-Q3 2025
We were unable to obtain more recent data, but a recent letter from former Migration Minister, Mike Tapp, put the overall number of licence revocations in care to June 2026 to a staggering 1,400.
More revocations in hospitality and administration sectors
While care took the biggest share of revocations in absolute terms, a closer look at the data suggests other sectors have been increasingly drawing the Home Office’s attention.
In just six months from 31 March 2025 to 30 September 2025, there was a 110% increase in the total number of licence revocations in “accommodation and food service activities”, an 84% increase in “administration and support service activities”, and another 78% increase in the number of revocations in manufacturing. Other sizable increases were also registered in “wholesale and retail trade” and “real estate activities” (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Increase in total sponsor licence revocations by industry, between Q1 2025 and Q3 2025
On the surface, the increase in licence revocations marks a welcome rise in due diligence, in an immigration system that, for the first couple of years, handed employers vast powers, with minimal accountability.
It is only right that employers who break the rules lose the privilege of sponsorship, and are prevented from recruiting other migrants and subjecting them to the same treatment. The problem however, is that licence revocations are just the tip of the iceberg of what is required to hold rogue sponsors to account, and compensate the workers affected by them.
Workers left stranded as employers walk away
When a sponsor loses its licence, all Skilled Worker visa holders linked to it normally risk having their permission to remain curtailed. This gives them just 60 days to find a new willing sponsor, pay relevant fees, and submit an immigration application to switch employers. Time and time again, the Work Rights Centre has flagged the inadequacies of this regime, by which workers bear the ultimate brunt of enforcement action. The government’s only worker-facing response was limited to a largely ineffective sponsor rematching programme, aimed only at care workers. This is hardly enough.
More concerningly, the impact of most licence revocations is extremely limited. Businesses may lose their sponsored staff and the ability to recruit migrant workers, but can reapply for a licence after 12 months. Having already profited from the exploitation, company directors can continue trading and potentially run similarly exploitative operations through other businesses. This is a grossly inadequate response to labour abuse.
Tougher penalties and stronger worker support are needed
A just approach is one that both seeks to minimise the risk that legal violations happen again and attempts to rectify those that had taken place.
We need stricter penalties against non-compliant sponsors, to act as a deterrent, and the worst offenders should face modern slavery charges. A penalty regime could then finance a much-needed compensation scheme for the tens of thousands of workers who were exploited by Home Office-approved employers.
Even without a compensation scheme, which the Home Office has a poor track record of handling, the department can do more to enable worker redress. The Fair Work Agency (FWA), established in April 2026, is already responsible for investigating serious exploitation, will have a remit to enforce National Minimum Wage and holiday pay, and can support modern slavery victims to access the National Referral Mechanism. The Home Office should have a policy to refer individuals to the FWA, where its licence revocation investigations show evidence of modern slavery. The same referrals could then inform critical labour enforcement activities.
It is deeply worrying that despite thousands of sponsor licence revocations over several years, none of the above is happening. Prime Minister Andy Burnham must change course l. If accountability starts with enforcement, the government should remember that behind the frenzy of revoked licences, there are thousands of exploited migrant workers who are yet to see justice.