By the Work Rights Centre

New migration transparency data released by the Home Office today, shows the department took the toughest enforcement action against employers of migrant workers in any 12-month period since Brexit, according to analysis by the Work Rights Centre.

As many as 4,403 employers had their Skilled Worker licence to employ migrant workers revoked between July 2025 and June 2026.This is the highest number of revocations recorded in any 12-month period since December 2020, when the UK replaced free movement with a new system of employer-sponsored work visas.

While the Home Office does not provide a sectoral breakdown, data obtained by the Work Rights Centre via a Freedom of Information request finds that between Q1 2022 and Q3 2025, the Home Office revoked a total of 872 licenses in the care sector, with other significant revocations in accommodation and food service activities (497), information and communications (359), retail (290), construction (281), and the arts (158). Another 512 licenses were stripped for businesses engaged in “other service activities”.

Labour rights experts warn that while officials are right to take enforcement action, without a fines regime licence revocations are just a slap on the wrist for businesses, which can continue to trade and win public sector contracts. 

Critically, without any safeguards in place, most of the workers affected by sponsor licence revocations end up paying for their employers’ wrongdoings themselves.

Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre said: “On the surface, the increase in licence revocations marks a welcome rise in due diligence, in an immigration system that for too long has handed employers vast powers, with minimal accountability.

“But for the criminals who abused the system, losing their licence is inconsequential. With no fines or prosecution, most continue to operate, win hefty care contracts from local authorities and even reapply for a licence from the government in 12 months. The deterrent effect is simply not there.

“Meanwhile, the tens of thousands of migrant workers sponsored by these businesses are hung out to dry. To this day, ministers have failed to set up a compensation scheme. For the scores of people exploited by government-approved businesses, the only choice is to find another sponsor and pay for another visa, if they are lucky, or return to their home countries destitute.”

The Work Rights Centre is calling on the Home Office to increase penalties for non-compliant visa sponsors, and institute safeguards for workers. The charity is asking the government to set up a compensation scheme for migrants who suffered exploitation at the hands of Home Office-licensed employers, refer victims of modern slavery to the Fair Work Agency, and reform the work migration system to put an end to employer sponsorship.

Work Rights Centre is a registered charity dedicated to ending in-work poverty. Its multilingual team helps migrants and disadvantaged Britons to access employment justice and improve their social mobility, by providing free and confidential advice in the areas of employment, immigration, and social security, and by mobilising frontline intelligence to address the systemic causes of inequality.