Prevention of illegal working: simplifying the civil penalty scheme
Download the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The government has recently consulted on proposals to ensure a more robust response to employers of illegal migrant workers and to simplify the scheme and make it easier for compliant employers to fulfil their responsibilities.
The results of the consultation set out the responses received to the consultation, the government’s response and next steps to implement changes in primary and secondary legislation.
The government will produce an impact assessment before amending regulations in April 2014.
Also available are data tables to accompany the results of the public consultation. They include a breakdown of respondents by nationality and type of employer, background information on individual and organisational responses and how respondents found out about the consultation.
Original consultation
Consultation description
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.
