The Immigration Skills Charge (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Made: 15th December 2025

Coming into force: 16th December 2025

The Secretary of State makes these Regulations with the consent of the Treasury in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 70A and 74(8) of the Immigration Act 2014[^f00001].

In accordance with section 74(2)(ja)[^f00002] of that Act, a draft of this instrument was laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

Citation, commencement and extent

1

• (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Immigration Skills Charge (Amendment) Regulations 2025 and come into force on 16th December 2025.

• (2) These Regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Amendment to the Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017

2

• (1) The Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017[^f00003] are amended as follows.

• (2) In regulation 4 (exemptions from the charge), for paragraph (a) substitute—

(a) in respect of an occupation coming within any of the following codes in version 12 of the Standard Occupational Classification 2020 Index[^f00004]— (i) 2111 (chemical scientists); (ii) 2112 (biological scientists); (iii) 2113 (biochemists and biomedical scientists); (iv) 2114 (physical scientists); (v) 2115 (social and humanities scientists); (vi) 2119 (natural and social science professionals not elsewhere classified); (vii) 2161 (research and development managers); (viii) 2162 (other researchers, unspecified discipline); (ix) 2311 (higher education teaching professionals); (x) 2463 (clergy); (xi) 3431 (sports players); (xii) 3432 (sports coaches, instructors and officials);

• (3) In paragraph 2 of the Schedule (amount of charge payable by a sponsor), for the table substitute—

Signed

Mike Tapp — Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State — Home Office — 11th December 2025

We consent

Taiwo Owatemi — Stephen Morgan — Two of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury — HM Treasury — 15th December 2025

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Explanatory Note

These Regulations are made under section 70A of the Immigration Act 2014 (c. 22) and amend the Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017 (S.I. 2017/499) (“the 2017 Regulations”).

The 2017 Regulations provide that a sponsor, subject to certain exemptions, must pay a charge each time it assigns a certificate of sponsorship to a skilled worker. Regulation 2(2) of these Regulations updates the exemptions to the requirement to pay the charge in order to align with the latest standard occupational classification codes, which are used by the Office for National Statistics to provide common classification of occupational information in the United Kingdom. Regulation 2(3) of these Regulations increases the amounts of charges payable by sponsors by 32%.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument. The immigration skills charge is classified as a tax and is therefore out of scope of the Better Regulation Framework.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 2014 c. 22. Consent of the Treasury is required by section 70A(5). Section 70A was inserted by section 85(2) of the Immigration Act 2016 (c. 19).

[^f00002]: Sub-paragraph (ja) was inserted by section 85(3) of the Immigration Act 2016.

[^f00003]: S.I. 2017/499, amended by S.I. 2020/1208 and S.I. 2022/1391.

[^f00004]: Published by the Office of National Statistics on 16 April 2025. An electronic copy is accessible via: https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/classificationsandstandards/standardoccupationalclassificationsoc/soc2020/soc2020volume2codingrulesandconventions. A paper copy of relevant entries can be obtained by emailing economicmigrationpolicy@homeoffice.gov.uk or by writing to the Economic Migration Policy Team, Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, SW1P 4DF.