On 11 March 2025, the Court of Appeal in Prestwick Care Ltd & Ors, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWCA Civ 184 confirmed that the Home Office has no obligation to conduct an impact assessment before revoking a sponsor licence.
For serious breaches, revocation is mandatory, and the Home Office is not required to exercise discretion.
Conflicting High Court decisions
Before this ruling, two High Court cases had reached different conclusions on whether a wider impact assessment before revoking a sponsor licence was necessary:
Prestwick Care Ltd & Ors v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 3193 (Admin)
The High Court upheld the Home Office’s decision to revoke Prestwick Care Ltd’s sponsor licence following a compliance check.
Breaches found included the following:
- Senior Care Assistants not performing duties listed on their Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS);
- Migrants paid less than their CoS-stated salaries;
- Employees either did not receive sick pay or were told that no sick pay was available for their roles;
- Immigration Skills Charge recouped from sponsored workers;
- Failure to record visa expiry dates of sponsored employees;
- HR records contained incorrect addresses for sponsored workers.
Prestwick Care argued that revocation would significantly impact employees, vulnerable residents, and local healthcare services.
The Court ruled that the Home Office is not required to consider commercial or community impact, its role is ensuring sponsor compliance, regardless of the size of the business.
Supporting Care Ltd, R (On the Application Of v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2024] EWHC 68 (Admin)
In the other case, Supporting Care Ltd had its licence revoked due to six policy breaches found during a compliance visit, though only one breach remained in dispute at the time of the hearing.
The sole disputed breach involved a Senior Care Worker allegedly not performing all CoS-listed duties.
Supporting Care submitted that the Home Office had failed to consider the wider impact on:
- Sponsored workers and their families who would face removal from the UK;
- Vulnerable individuals under the company’s care; and
- Service provision within the local care sector.
They argued that the wording of the policy gave room for discretion to be exercised.
C10.4. Annex C1 of this document sets out the circumstances in which we will revoke your licence – these are known as ‘mandatory’ grounds of revocation. If any of these circumstances arise, we may revoke your licence immediately and without warning. […]
Sponsor-guidance-Part-3-compliance-12-24-v1.0.pdf (p.46)
In addition, public law principles require discretion to be exercised.
The High Court ruled in Supporting Care’s favour and held that discretion still applies, as mandatory revocation must be reasonable and proportionate.
Court of Appeal Decision
Prestwick Care Ltd appealed, arguing that the Home Office should consider wider consequences when revoking licences.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, reaffirming that the Home Office is not responsible for assessing the impact on health and social care.
Meanwhile, the Home Office challenged the Supporting Care ruling, arguing that the High Court’s decision undermined the sponsor licence regime.
The High Court’s decision to quash the revocation in Supporting Care was upheld, but only on procedural fairness grounds, as the Home Office failed to put its dishonesty finding to the employee or employer before revocation.
Conclusion
While sponsors must comply with their duties, the Home Office must also act fairly when imposing serious penalties. However, for serious breaches, revocation remains mandatory, and wider impact assessments are not required.
Have questions? Get in touch today!
Call us on 020 7928 0276, we will be taking calls from 9:30am to 6:00pm.
Email us on info@lisaslaw.co.uk.
Use the contact form function on our website. Simply enter your details and leave a message, we will get right back to you: https://lisaslaw.co.uk/ask-question/
For more updates, follow us on our social media platforms! You can find them all on our Linktree right here.
