Prevention of illegal working: simplifying the civil penalty scheme

Employers already have a responsibility to check that their employees have the right to work in the UK, and since 2008 this has been underpinned by a civil penalty scheme.This has been successful in requiring employers to make right to work checks and imposing a sanction on those who do not.

We propose to further refine these requirements to get tougher on employers who continue to exploit illegal migrant workers, and increase the sanction to reflect the harm they cause. In parallel, and mindful of burdens on legitimate business, we are proposing a number of measures to significantly reduce the administrative costs of complying with the requirements to make checks.