A recent press released from the Home Office has announced that businesses failing to conduct the necessary identity checks on employees are to face even higher fines. Penalties are set to triple from early 2024, so what can employers do to protect themselves?
Currently, the penalty for any size of business found to be employing an illegal worker is £20,000 per worker. This is to triple, and businesses are now facing fines of £60,000 per illegal worker. This is a huge sum of money to many small companies, and one which could easily put them out of business entirely. If Border Force agents come knocking at your door, they will expect to see that you have a good system in place for checking the identity and immigration status of everyone working for you, and a way of recording the checks and filing paperwork. Companies should start now to tighten up their processes and procedures to ensure they have nothing to fear from any future compliance visit.
What’s Changing?
The Home Secretary announced in August 2023 that penalties would triple from the start of 2024. The Home Office is trying to discourage illegal migration, exploitation of vulnerable individuals, and modern slavery by making it much harder for people who are not legally in the UK to find work. For a first offence, the penalty for the employer will rise from a maximum of £15,000 to £45,000, and for subsequent breaches, from £20,000 to £60,000. Since the beginning of 2018, around 5,000 fines totalling £88.4m have been handed out to employers.
Avoiding Fines
When the Home Office identifies illegal working, an employer can only avoid a fine by showing that they have done as much as possible to ensure their workers are legal. This means showing that they have completed manual right-to-work check, used identity document validation technology (where permitted), or completed a Home Office online right-to-work check. If the Home Office is satisfied that the employer has checked identity as far as possible, a fine is unlikely.
Key Employer Mistakes
There are five key mistakes businesses make when conducting checks:
- Not staying up to date with current legislation and updating processes accordingly.
- Accepting biometric residence permits as proof of right to work and not going through the additional Home Office online check.
- Not recording the date checks were done on their system.
- Not keeping term dates to ensure that any overseas student workers are complying with the rules.
- Not understanding the rules about how long an overseas student can work after graduating.
The Minister for Immigration has told employers that they have “no excuse for not conducting the appropriate checks.” It seems clear that the Home Office intend to keep up the pressure on business through 2024, so it makes sense to audit your processes now to make sure you are prepared for the new changes. From a worker’s point of view, be prepared for a stricter level of checking going forward, and the potential for being checked regularly rather than just once at the start of employment.
