My business has multiple offices across the UK, can my sponsored employees split their time between these locations?

The Home Office has reaffirmed in the new guidance that hybrid and remote-working locations for sponsored workers must be notified. All sponsored workers’ employment locations should be reviewed by sponsors, who should then consider updating the Sponsor Management System, as necessary.

This move is significant since, during the pandemic, the Home Office published sponsor instructions reaffirming that they were exempt from reporting sponsored employees who were working from home owing to the coronavirus. During the COVID-19 lockdown periods, many businesses shifted to remote working, either temporarily or permanently.

Temporary shifts in working location that are not a regular component of a worker’s schedule are exempt from reporting requirements.

The guidelines re-affirm that the sponsor is required to notify the Home Office when a worker’s usual work location (as stated on their Certificate of Sponsorship) changes, including when the worker is/will be working at a different site, branch, or office of the sponsor, or at a different client site. The guidance now states that it must also be reported if the employee works from home permanently or on a full-time basis with little to no necessity to attend a workplace. Working from home includes working from hub workspaces.

To make sure that all locations that are a part of a sponsored employee’s regular working pattern are appropriately displayed, sponsors should review the work location details currently recorded on the SMS and make notifications as necessary, to ensure that all hybrid or remote arrangements are accurately recorded on the Sponsor Management System.

Sponsors should also be prepared to defend why the worker has to be based in the UK when they are not required to physically attend a workplace, in the event that the Home Office questions this.

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