Between July 2024 and May 2025, there was a 51% increase in immigration enforcement activity by the Home Office. This includes visits to workplaces and arrests and is evidence of the Government’s ongoing crackdown on illegal working. This is  how employers can avoid the hefty penalties and criminal charges that employing people illegally can bring.

 

All employers, regardless of size, are under a legal duty to prevent illegal working and can be subjected to penalties where they fail to do so. Since coming to office in 2024, the Government have been steadily cracking down on illegal working via its Home Office Enforcement teams. Data released by the Home Office for the period January to March 2025 shows that enforcement action resulted in:

 

• 748 civil penalty notices issued

 

• £41.6 million in fines

 

This is a significant increase from the three months preceding that period (October – December 2024), when 489 civil penalties were issued and the total value of fines was £29.2 million. Other penalties that could be faced for employing someone illegally include criminal prosecutions and even the forced closure of the business.

 

The statutory excuse

 

This is an employer’s defence against employing somebody illegally and can only be established if the employer can show that appropriate checks were carried out. Without the statutory excuse, the employer can be liable for fines and criminal prosecution if they are found to have been employing someone illegally.

 

For the statutory to be established checks must be carried out and records kept of them being done for the duration of the employment and for two years after., including the dates on which the checks took place.

As you client had carried out the appropriate checks, they established their ‘statutory excuse’ which meant that even though new information later came to light and it transpired that the individual was working illegally, there wasn’t any liability for your client for employing them.

 

Checking right to work

 

Right to work checks should be conducted prior to employment begins. They involve a three-step process of:

 

Obtain – the documents or other evidence of right to work
Check– that the documents are genuine and the person presenting them is their rightful owner and the prospective employee
Copy – make a copy of the documents or Identity Document Verification Technology (IDVT) check and retain it for the future.

 

Checks can be carried out in the following ways:

 

• Manual checks – in these checks, an original document is needed. These can be used for both foreign nationals, where they don’t have a ‘share code’ (see ‘online checks’ below), which must be checked using an online check) and British and Irish citizens. Typically, this involves checking a passport (or passport card for Irish nationals), or birth certificate, however the full list of acceptable documents can be found on List A on gov.uk’s “Employers’ right to work checklist”. These documents indicate the individual has an unlimited right to work and remain in the UK.

 

• Online checks – using the Home Office online system, this is for foreign nationals who have an online share code. Once this check has been completed, your client will need to take a screen shot of the confirmation of right to work status and keep a record of it along with the date when the check was made.

 

• Digital checks – these are used for British and Irish citizens. The services of an Identity Service Provider (IDSP) are utilised for this form of check, which uses Identity Document Verification Technology (IDVT) to check right to work documentation remotely. Once this check has been completed, your client will need to review the outcome and keep a record of it along with the date when the check was made.