The UK Home Office has recently granted hundreds of newly established care providers licences to sponsor workers from abroad, despite having no track record of providing services in the UK, reports The Guardian and the Observer. Sponsor licences have been granted to newly formed firms that have never filed company accounts and are only a few months old.

Findings showed that at least 268 companies that have never been inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have also been granted licences. Others appear to have been granted licences by the Home Office despite not being registered with the watchdog at all. According to The Guardian, suspected bogus companies with copy-and-paste websites, fake-looking reviews and PO boxes as addresses are among those granted licences allowing them to sponsor workers to come to the UK.

The Observer pointed to a number of cases, including newly incorporated companies being granted licences despite egregious spelling errors in their applications and another stating that it was a health and social care recruitment firm despite rules stating that employment agencies are not eligible to sponsor healthcare workers. Another firm had reviews that may not have been legitimate and had never been inspected by the CQC, nor did it have a proven track record in providing care.

Immigration experts and charities said the cases were proof that ‘lax oversight of the sponsor licence system’ was leading to bogus providers being given approval to recruit internationally, some of which have gone on to scam and exploit workers, including charging thousands of pounds to provide UK visa sponsorship.

Brian Bell, Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, told The Guardian, “Some of these firms that are setting up are not providing care at all. They are setting up, getting visas from the Home Office and then selling them.”

Adis Sehic, senior policy officer at the Work Rights Centre, said, “These findings appear to validate our long-held concerns that the Home Office’s due diligence activities when granting sponsor licences to employers, particularly in the care sector, are woefully inadequate.”

Last month, a report by the Work Rights Centre which analysed Home Office immigration statistics for October and December 2024, said employment rights advocates should note three key things. “First, the number of Health and Care Worker visas issued more than doubled compared with 2022. Second, more businesses are being licensed to sponsor migrant workers than ever before, and lastly, Home Office capacity to oversee them is doubtful.”

It noted that in 2023, the Home Office revoked 337 licences and suspended a further 569. This is an increase in enforcement action against sponsors compared to 2022, when the Home Office suspended just 331 licences and revoked another 273, but still far below the level for 2014 to 2017, when the number of sponsors was a ‘fraction of what it is today.’

David Neal, the former Independent Chief Inspector for Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) told the Times that the Home Office has just 1 inspector for every 1,600 businesses. The Work Rights Centre said this was ‘a serious cause for concern’.

The Home Office said it was strengthening oversight of the sponsor licence system in the care sector to address “significant concerns about high levels of non-compliance, worker exploitation and abuse”.

Under rules coming into effect this month, providers in England will only be able to sponsor migrant workers if they are registered with the CQC.

Campaigners have said that it is not enough for firms to simply be registered with the CQC, because newly registered providers are not always inspected straight away. They are also calling for improved minimum standards for visa sponsors, including a requirement for providers to be operating for at least two years before being allowed licences, and a requirement for them to have been inspected recently by the CQC. They also criticised a government plan to scrap the need for sponsors to apply to renew their licences, which will come into effect next month.

The CQC said it has not issued a statement on the findings and said it was a matter for the Home Office.

The Home Office told The Guardian, “We strongly condemn offering health-and-care-worker visa-holders employment under false pretences and will continue to revoke licences from those who abuse the system, as we do not tolerate illegal activity in the labour market.”