Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it the policy of the Government that firms which employ people who have no legal right to be in the UK should be (a) named and (b) prosecuted.

The Immigration Act 2016 introduced a range of further measures to deter people from working illegally in the UK and to respond robustly to rogue businesses who employ them, alongside the sanction of civil penalties. Illegal workers will face the prospect of having their earnings seized as the proceeds of crime as a consequence of illegal working being made a criminal offence. Provisions in the Act make it easier to prosecute an employer who knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, that the person they employ has no permission to work in the UK and this is accompanied by an increase in the maximum custodial sentence from 2 to 5 years. Rogue employers could also have their businesses closed if they continue to flout the law, and licences in the private hire vehicle and taxi sector and alcohol and late night refreshment sector will be subject to immigration checks and continuing compliance with immigration laws.

It would not be a proportionate response to name and prosecute every employer who employs an illegal worker. For example, they may have accepted a forged immigration document where the forged element was not reasonably apparent or simply failed to check the right to work document correctly. We will, accordingly, continue to name employers who have not paid or are not making regular payments towards a civil penalty or have been served with a second or further penalty, and apply the civil penalty of up to £20,000 per illegal worker employed as a sanction in most routine cases involving the employment of illegal workers. However, in more serious cases, prosecution may be considered when it is the appropriate response to non compliance and in the public interest.