Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to further raise fines levied against businesses found to be employing illegal workers.

Clamping down on illegal working is a critical part of this government’s Plan for Change, and as part of the strategy to tackle Organised Immigration Crime. Ensuring fairness, order and control within the immigration and asylum system.

Where an employer is found to have employed someone without the right to work, fines will be levied against the business. The Home Office has no current plan to further raise these fines at present.

Under this government has been a significant increase in immigration enforcement activity in the UK, including more than 8,000 arrests during illegal working visits in the year up to October 2025 – a 63% increase on the same period 12 months prior.

The Government is extending the Right to Work Scheme to ensure companies conduct right to work checks to prevent illegal working when they contract workers to provide services under their company name, this will include agency workers or self-employed individuals working in the gig economy. These new measures are included in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act.

These new legislative measures will restrict the ability of employers to take advantage of illegal workers and encourage businesses to provide work opportunities to only those permitted to work in the UK. It will provide parity across industries and will set a level playing field for businesses to uphold their responsibilities to prevent illegal working in the UK.