Undocumented Workers

(asked on 8th July 2015) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of employers sent a civil penalty notice (a) established a statutory excuse, (b) were fined and (c) received the maximum fine of £20,000 in the last year.


Answered by
James Brokenshire Portrait
James Brokenshire
This question was answered on 21st July 2015

The table gives information on the number of Referral Notices received by the Civil Penalty Compliance Team from July 2014-June 2015 for all workers. Some Referral Notices will include more than one worker and an employer may receive more than one Referral Notice during a 12 month period. The table also shows the number of penalties that were served on employers for employing an illegal worker from July 2014-June 2015. The same employer may have received more than one penalty during this 12 month period. Referral notices received near the end of a calendar month may not be concluded with a Civil Penalty being issued until the following month.

The table provides the number of workers for whom employers have received a penalty of either £20,000 or £15,000 in each of the last 12 months. In addition to the table, 1450 employers have received a penalty of less than £15,000 per worker for employing an undocumented worker in the last 12 months. In the case of a first time breach, the £15,000 penalty can be reduced where specified mitigating factors are shown.

The table also shows how many employers were served with a No Action Notice (NAN) or Notification of No Liability (NONL) from July 2014 - June 2015. These may be served where an employer has established a statutory excuse against the employment for all the workers encountered.

The proportion of Civil Penalty Notices issued in the 12 month period is 73%, the proportion of NANs or NONL issued in the 12 months period is 27%.

Please note the figures for penalties levied at the initial decision stage which may be reduced, cancelled, increased or reissued at the objection or appeal stage.

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