Bristol City Council - Certificates of Sponsorship for Foreign Skilled Workers

Bristol City Council - Job Application Guidance

(screenshot taken on 16/07/2026)

The Bristol Contract

(first published on 31/07/2015)

This policy implies that Bristol City Council will only recruit workers from the UK (and hopefully Bristol where possible). But if this is the case then why do Bristol City Council hold a licence to sponsor skilled workers?

It is possible to have a licence, but not actually use it. This means the existence of a valid licence does not mean that any foreign skilled workers are actually recruited.

But a recent FOI Request has resulted in the publication of data showing which organisations have actually sponsored foreign skilled workers between 2021 and 2024.

The data shows that between 2021 and 2024 BCC had 42 "Certificates of Sponsorship"

2021 : Between 1 and 5
2022 : Between 1 and 5
2023: 6
2024 : 29
Total of 42

An asterisk (*) in the data table means that between 1 and 5 Certificates of Sponsorship were issued. The Home Office does not publish the exact number where it is under 6, but the "Grand Total" does show the accurate total where the total is greater than 5.

Why does this matter?

There are almost 15,000 people in Bristol who want a job and could fill many of the vacancies where a foreign worker has been employed instead.

JSNA Health and Wellbeing Profile 2026/27

In the twelve months ending December 2025, there were 14,900 economically inactive people who wanted a job, while 11,600 people were estimated to be unemployed. This meant that a total of 26,500 people were involuntarily workless. This is 9.7% of the economically active population.

Skilled Worker Route Changes

The "Changes to UK visa and settlement rules after the 2025 immigration white paper" was published on 03/06/2026 and included some relevant changes:

Shortening the list of jobs for which employers can sponsor a worker from overseas for a Skilled Worker visa. Jobs assessed as being medium-skilled – RQF levels 3-5 – would no longer be sponsorable unless the Migration Advisory Committee recommends an exemption and the industry demonstrates efforts to recruit domestically
Ending an existing exemption for social care workers, so that employers would no longer be allowed to recruit them from abroad

What is a Certificate of Sponsorship?

See Certificates of Sponsorship

Future Reports

I am currently analysing all of the "Certificate of Sponsorship" data for Bristol and will produce a report on all of the Bristol Data.