Don’t be caught out when it comes to workers from abroad

The Home Office is cracking down on illegal working. In a telling sign of the UK Government’s intensified enforcement action against businesses, a record-breaking 828 places of work were raided in January 2025 – a 73 per cent increase from the previous year.

Sectors including hospitality, retail and the beauty industry were key targets, with enforcement officers focusing their raids on restaurants, nail bars, car washes and warehouses.

With civil penalties starting at £45,000 per illegal worker, employers cannot afford to ignore their responsibility to ensure that all staff have the right to work in the UK.

Many compliance breaches come from honest mistakes, says Jacqueline Moore

This increased enforcement action comes less than a year after significant changes to immigration compliance requirements.

In February 2024, civil penalties for illegal working skyrocketed from £15,000 to £45,000 per worker for a first breach, generating an eye-watering £21.5 million in civil penalties for the Home Office by June 2024.

In our experience, many compliance breaches come from honest mistakes. Since the UK left the European Union in 2020, only British and Irish citizens have an automatic right to work in the UK. Everyone else, including those from the EU, must now hold individual immigration permission.

It is critical that businesses carry out right to work checks on every worker before they start work. A right to work check carried out in line with Home Office requirements provides a full defence against a Civil Penalty if it transpires the worker is working illegally. In some ways, the introduction of the online “share code” system of right to work checks has made right to work checks more straightforward for employers in recent years. However, it remains a complex and technical area.

For small businesses without dedicated HR teams or the resources to pay for regular legal advice, the challenges are acute. This is reflected in the fact that many of those businesses targeted in January’s raids were in hospitality – a sector where as many as 97 per cent of businesses employ fewer than 50 people.

While the Home Office can distinguish between small and large companies in relation to sponsor licences – those classed as “small” pay a smaller application fee and a reduced charge to sponsor workers – it does not do so when it comes to civil penalties. A small business is expected to pay the same fine as a profitable multinational company with hundreds of employees. This has created a set of disproportionate rules.

For businesses that receive a civil penalty, they should respond immediately and seek legal advice, as penalties may be reduced or cancelled following an objection on a limited number of grounds.

The UK Government shows no signs of letting up on immigration enforcement, meaning businesses should take urgent action to review right to work processes now to ensure compliance with current immigration law.

When it comes to civil penalties, prevention is always better than cure. Specialist training on right to work, combined with regular internal audits, is strongly recommended.

Jacqueline Moore is a Partner at Thorntons ​