The number of UK sponsors holding a B-rating has more than quadrupled in four months. Our analysis of the Home Office register of licensed sponsors shows 88 B-rated sponsors on 2 October 2026, up from 21 at the start of June and 17 a year ago.
For nine months the figure barely moved, staying between 17 and 21. Since June it has climbed every month: 28 in July, 33 in August, 55 in September and 88 in October.
What a B-Rating Means for an Employer
A B-rating is a temporary downgrade given when a sponsor is not meeting its duties. While B-rated, an employer:
- cannot assign new Certificates of Sponsorship, except to existing workers who are extending their stay;
- must pay £1,579 for a Home Office action plan within 10 working days of being told about the downgrade;
- must complete the action plan and return to an A-rating within the time set, which cannot be more than 3 months;
- can only be B-rated twice while the licence is valid, and loses the licence if it still needs to improve after a second action plan.
The register shows each sponsor’s rating, but not why it was downgraded, so it cannot tell us what is driving the rise. What it does show is that more employers are now operating under a Home Office action plan than at any point in the past year.
The Register Is Still Growing
The register itself keeps expanding. On 2 October 2026 it listed 127,705 organisations, 122,323 of them licensed for the Skilled Worker route, compared with 122,996 a year earlier, a rise of 3.8%.
Between about 1,100 and 1,700 organisations joined the register each month, while between about 640 and 1,290 left. April 2026 was the only month in which more organisations left than joined. An organisation leaving the register may have surrendered its licence, merged, been taken over or stopped trading, as well as had its licence revoked; the register does not record the reason.
The Figures in Full
| Start of month | Organisations | B-rated | Joined | Left |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2025 | 122,996 | 17 | ||
| November 2025 | 123,380 | 19 | 1,672 | 1,288 |
| December 2025 | 124,062 | 19 | 1,420 | 738 |
| January 2026 | 124,752 | 19 | 1,329 | 639 |
| February 2026 | 125,283 | 19 | 1,229 | 698 |
| March 2026 | 125,717 | 19 | 1,341 | 907 |
| April 2026 | 125,683 | 19 | 1,141 | 1,175 |
| May 2026 | 125,846 | 17 | 1,176 | 1,013 |
| June 2026 | 126,378 | 21 | 1,380 | 848 |
| July 2026 | 126,883 | 28 | 1,351 | 846 |
| August 2026 | 127,340 | 33 | 1,580 | 1,123 |
| September 2026 | 127,650 | 55 | 1,099 | 789 |
| October 2026 | 127,705 | 88 | 1,247 | 1,192 |
What Employers Should Do Now
- Check your own rating in the Sponsorship Management System, and that your SMS users are active with multi-factor authentication set up.
- Test your records before the Home Office does. A mock Home Office audit reviews worker files, right to work records and SMS reporting.
- Keep reporting on time. Most changes to sponsored workers must be reported within 10 working days. Our SMS and sponsor compliance retainer handles this for you.
- Watch the 1 October right to work changes if you use contractors or platforms: what changed.
About the Data
These figures come from our monthly UK Sponsor Licence Register Tracker, which analyses the Home Office register of licensed Worker and Temporary Worker sponsors. Earlier editions of the register were taken from the UK Government Web Archive. Organisations are matched on name and town, and no individual organisation is identified. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
If your licence has been downgraded, or you want to make sure it is not, call our sponsor licence team on 0203 959 3335 or email [email protected].
