Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the consequences for employment of requiring indefinite leave to remain visas to be in a current passport.

In May 2014, the Government amended the regulations governing right to work checks to prevent illegal working in the UK. This followed a public consultation on ways to strengthen and simplify controls on the employment of illegal workers and to make it easier for law abiding employers to conduct checks. The changes included reducing the range of documents for checking purposes, with a greater reliance on more secure and current forms of documentation.

Since May, endorsements, including those for indefinite leave to remain are therefore required to be in documents which have not expired. This is to enable us to replace insecure immigration documents with secure biometric residence permits. Individuals whose documents are no longer valid may make an application to the Home Office to upgrade their older form of immigration documentation.

Employers are only required to conduct a check at the start of employment for those individuals with no restrictions on their permission to be in the UK. Where that individual has made an application to the Home Office because their document has expired, the employer may contact with the Home Office’s Employer Checking Service to verify that the person has the right to work and therefore employment can commence without delay.