Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-06-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in relation to certificates of sponsorship used to support immigrants’ entry clearance or extension of stay applications, (1) how many sponsoring employers are currently registered, (2) where those employers are listed, (3) how many certificates of sponsorship are granted to each sponsoring employer, (4) whether such figures are available on application, and (5) what was the total number of those sponsored in the last two years.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

There are currently 30,181 sponsoring employers on the register of licensed sponsors.

The register is published on the “www.gov.uk” website and can be found on the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-of-licensed-sponsors-workers

The number of certificates granted to sponsoring employers differ depending on their recruitment requirements. Sponsoring employers may submit a request at the point their licence application is submitted. A sponsor can submit a further request to increase their allocation once licensed.

A sponsor is not granted a pre determined allocation of Certificates of sponsorship (CoS) at licensing stage.

The total number of CoS assigned to individuals in 2014 is 133,820.The total number of CoS assigned to individuals in 2015 is 131,617