Overseas workers: sponsor licences up 300% on 2020 level

Published: 4 September 2024 | by: Personnel Today

The number of businesses registered to sponsor overseas workers has risen by more than 300% since the UK’s points-based immigration system was introduced in 2020, an analysis of government figures shows.

The updated database of sponsor licence holders shows there are now over 119,400 businesses and organisations registered by the Home Office as authorised to sponsor migrant workers for work visas, including Skilled Worker visas. In 2020 when the current immigration system was introduced the figure stood at just over 29,000. Two years later it had increased to over 48,000.

Immigration and visa expert Yash Dubal, director of A Y & J Solicitors, who analysed the figures, said the rise showed how reliant the UK had become on overseas labour.

Correspondingly, figures released last week showed a sharp rise in the number of employers seeing their sponsor applications suspended or revoked.

“When the changes to the post-Brexit immigration system first came into effect in 2020 there was some concern that not enough businesses were registering to become sponsor licence holders. Take up was slow. But the latest figures show that particularly in the past two years, numbers have rocketed,” he said.

“This has been driven directly by a demand for overseas workers across all sectors, not just in the health and care industries, which have seen the biggest rises in work visa holders.”

The figures revealed that of the organisations on the register, the vast majority were licensed to sponsor workers on Skilled Worker visas (101,230). The next most popular visa route for licence holders was the Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist worker visa, for which 9,772 organisations were registered.

Dubal said other visa categories offered interesting insights into the types of workers needed by UK organisations. For example, the third most popular work visa category for licence holders was minister of religion, of which 1,613 were issued. He added: “There were also over 1,200 organisations registered to sponsor general religious workers. This is likely one of the consequences of a reported shortage of religious workers in the UK.”

Earlier in the summer the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland called for an overhaul of the immigration system amid summer chaos due to a shortage of foreign supply priests. Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen Diocese said dioceses were struggling to obtain visas for supply priests from outside Europe.

The Home Office figures also show relatively high numbers of organisations licensed to sponsor migrants on creative worker (1,491), charity worker (1,308) and international sportsperson (1,259) visas.

Overall, the number of migrant workers entering Britain has declined due to curbs on visas, with those applying to enter Britain on a skilled worker, health and care or study visa fell by more than a third in July compared with the same time last year.

The overall number of people applying to come to the UK as skilled workers, healthcare workers or to study fell from 143,000 in July of last year to 91,300 in July of this year — a drop of 36%.

There was an 82% decline in the number of applications for health and care visas between April and July, and the number of people applying to study in the UK fell by 15%, according to the Home Office.