Jun 2016
17
Employers fined over £21 million for Employing Illegal Employees
Every quarter UK Visas and Immigration and Immigration Enforcement publish a report showing the number of fines issued to employers in each region of the UK for employing illegal employees. Over £21 million fines were issued in the second half of 2015. The total amount of illegal employees in that same period was 1,820, the area with the most illegal employees was in the London and South East region.
Employers can face fines and criminal prosecution for hiring illegal employees, the maximum fine having increased from £10,000 to £20,000 in May 2014 for illegally hiring an immigrant. Employers are advised to ensure they know what the correct work checks are and ensure these checks are being made.
On GOV.UK the UK Visas and Immigration and Immigration Enforcement have An employer’s guide to right to work checks which details:
• what a right to work check is
• why you need to do right to work checks
• whose documents you should check
• how to carry out checks
• when to carry out initial checks, follow-up checks and what happens under TUPE what documents are acceptable.
