At the end of April 2021 the Home Office sent a voluntary survey to more than 34,000 sponsors of workers to gather information about the time and cost associated with holding their sponsor licence. This will be used to assist the Home Office to design an improved sponsorship system for workers and to evaluate it once implemented.
The survey must be completed by 23 May 2021. The changes which the Home Office is contemplating making to the system are substantial and are aimed at streamlining and simplifying processes for sponsors, as well as delivering a faster process for bringing migrants to the United Kingdom.
The survey seeks feedback on six areas:
- general details of the sponsor's size and sector and the type of licence held;
- usage and cost of third parties to support the sponsor in its day-to-day activities (eg, legal advisers and HR consultants);
- time and resources used to apply for and assign certificates of sponsorship and top areas for improvement;
- time taken to understand sponsor guidance and feedback on using the system;
- time and resources used to gather and submit evidence of significant changes to the sponsor organisation (eg, due to a merger or takeover or to add or remove a branch or site); and
- infrastructure in place to comply with sponsor record-keeping duties.
The survey does not require the sponsor to provide any identifying information and will not be used by the Home Office for sponsor compliance activities. It is intended to identify areas most in need of reform and to provide baseline information against which the reforms of the sponsorship system can be evaluated.
The evaluation is due to be completed in 2024 and the responses will be kept until then.
