Certificates of sponsorship awarded: 2021 to 2025

FOI reference: FOI-2026-3536

You asked

I wish to make an FOI request and would be grateful if you could tell me the following:

The numbers of certificates of sponsorship awarded by your organisation for the years 2021 - 2025 (inclusive) - if possible, please can I have this broken down by in-country and entry visa sponsorship.

If possible, the number of these CoS which resulted in visa issuance. Although I understand this may not be available for all, or any years. If this is the case I would request that you proceed with the rest of the request.

If possible, please could you also provide the annual figures on COS broken down by the occupation code of the roles for which the sponsorship was issued. Also - a break down by nationality of those awarded the certificates of sponsorship.

If any of these results throw up fewer than five results, and you have concerns about 'personal data', then please simply use FOI best practice and enter next to the corresponding field "<5".

We said

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request regarding Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) issued by the UK Statistics Authority for the period 2021 to 2025. 

The data provided: 

• Is drawn from internal HR and sponsorship records held by ONS 

• Includes Certificates of Sponsorship issued to individuals who have since left the organisation 

• Represents the number of Certificates of Sponsorship issued (each CoS counted separately, including where individuals received more than one) 

Where any category contains fewer than five individuals, figures have been reported as “<5” to ensure that no individual can be identified from this information. This suppression is in line with the FOI exemption found under s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information, which permits the non-disclosure of information if to do so would contravene the data protection principles. 

1. Number of Certificates of Sponsorship issued (2021--2025) 

ONS issued a total of 67 Certificates of Sponsorship between 2021 and 2025. 

The annual breakdown can be found in the associated spreadsheet download.

2. Breakdown by in-country and entry clearance sponsorship 

We do not hold a breakdown between in-country and entry clearance sponsorship.

3. Number of CoS resulting in visa issuance 

We do not hold data on whether a Certificate of Sponsorship resulted in a visa being issued.

4. Breakdown by occupation (SOC code, by year) 

This information can be found in the associated spreadsheet download.

5. Breakdown by nationality (by year) 

This information can be found in the associated spreadsheet download.