Can we assign Define CoS where employment start date is in Past?

Hello everyone,

I have a similar situation to discuss. In November 2023, we applied for a Certificate of Sponsorship (COS) with an intended employment start date around the 23rd of December. However, the COS was issued on the 26th of January and is valid until the 20th of May. Meanwhile, the candidate we initially selected has moved on, and we have found a new resource. We now wish to assign the COS to this new resource.

During the assignment process, I noticed that the employment start and end dates cannot be changed, and they are set to the dates we provided when applying for the COS i.e. 23rd December 2023, which was before the COS was actually issued (26th January 2024).

My question is, should we proceed with assigning the COS to our new employee as it is, or should we notify the Home Office and request a change to the dates?

Thank you for your input.