Immigration Enforcement: Raids, Employer Fines and Sponsor Revocations
Sources: Home Office Immigration Enforcement and Sponsorship transparency data (Q1 2026, published 21 May 2026), ad hoc illegal working releases (data to 31 December 2025), and the quarterly Illegal working penalties: UK report (1 October 2025 to 31 December 2025, published 7 July 2026).Illegal working visits and arrests by month, January 2019 to December 2025
A "visit" is an enforcement visit by Immigration Enforcement teams to a business suspected of employing people without the right to work. Visits fell to near zero between April 2020 and early 2021, the period of covid-19 restrictions, and have risen since 2022.
Illegal working civil penalties: value by quarter
Gross value of civil penalties issued to employers each quarter. The maximum penalty rose in 2024 to £45,000 per worker (first breach) and £60,000 per worker (repeat breach). Hover for the number of penalties issued.
Sponsor licences suspended and revoked by quarter
Action taken against licensed sponsors across the Skilled Worker, Student and Temporary Worker routes. Suspensions here are Skilled Worker plus Temporary Worker; revocations include all three routes. There were 124,837 Skilled Worker sponsors registered at the end of Q1 2026.
Illegal working visits and arrests by region, 2025
Annual enforcement activity by UK region, matched to ONS regions by the location of the visit. 2019 shown for comparison as the first year of the published series.
| Region | Visits 2019 | Visits 2025 | Arrests 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 5,339 | 10,589 | 7,688 |
| England - East Midlands | 168 | 547 | 207 |
| England - East of England | 228 | 610 | 387 |
| England - London | 2,047 | 2,715 | 2,172 |
| England - North East | 222 | 512 | 256 |
| England - North West | 850 | 1,771 | 841 |
| England - South East | 551 | 1,210 | 933 |
| England - South West | 335 | 1,289 | 1,117 |
| England - West Midlands | 561 | 1,315 | 1,254 |
| England - Yorkshire and The Humber | 377 | 620 | 521 |
| Northern Ireland | 26 | 187 | 234 |
| Scotland | 308 | 695 | 400 |
| Wales | 331 | 1,320 | 649 |
| Grand Total | 6,004 | 12,791 | 8,971 |
The England row is the total across the nine English regions listed beneath it.
Employers fined for illegal working: 1 October 2025 to 31 December 2025
The Home Office names employers who, 28 days after exhausting all objection and appeal rights, have not paid (and are not making regular payments towards) an illegal working penalty, or who received a second or further penalty. It is not a list of every penalty issued. Values are final, after any objections and appeals.
| Business | Location | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Loading the employer list… (requires JavaScript) | ||
Data Limitations & Caveats
- What a "visit" is. An enforcement visit to a business suspected of employing people without the right to work. The same business can be visited more than once, and a visit does not mean wrongdoing was found. An arrest is not a charge, conviction or removal.
- Provisional operational data. Visits and arrests are taken from live operational systems (snapshot 2 January 2026), are matched to ONS regions by the location of the event, and are subject to revision. Sponsor and penalty tables are also subject to revision in later editions.
- The named employer list is not all penalties. It covers only penalties unpaid (and not on a payment plan) 28 days after appeal rights were exhausted, plus second or further penalties. The quarterly CP_02 series counts penalties at issue with gross values, so the two series are not directly comparable. One penalty can cover multiple workers.
- Penalty values change after issue. CP_02 values are gross at the point of issue and may be reduced following objections, appeals, or the faster payment option. The named list shows final values after appeal rights are exhausted.
- Sponsor actions count licences, not employers. SC_01 counts suspensions and revocations per quarter and per route; a sponsor suspended and later revoked appears in both series. The covid-19 period (2020 to 2021) and rule changes over the series affect comparability across years.