Home Office minister Anna Turley told the Immigration and Asylum Bill committee on 3 November that illegal working may result in a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, and in the review and possible revocation of a licence in the private hire and taxi sector.
The committee
The sixteenth sitting was on the afternoon of Tuesday 3 November, with Dr Andrew Murrison in the chair. Blake Stephenson, Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire, moved three new clauses. New clause 70 would make directors, partners, registered persons with significant control and shadow directors jointly and severally liable for a civil penalty imposed on the business. New clause 71 would make an officer or partner criminally liable where the offence of employing someone disqualified by their immigration status was the result of neglect, not only consent or connivance. New clause 72 would allow a court to disqualify a director for up to 15 years where a penalty had gone unpaid for six months, with no objection or appeal still pending, and the court was satisfied that their conduct made them unfit to manage a company.
The sanctions in place
Turley, Minister for Border Security and Asylum and the MP for Redcar, set out the powers already on the statute book. Section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 provides a civil penalty where an employer employs someone disqualified from the work by their immigration status. Meeting the prescribed requirements, including compliant right-to-work checks, can be an excuse against that liability.
The scheme was extended from October 2026 to a worker's contract, individual subcontracting and an online matching service, with Uber drivers and Just Eat and other delivery drivers given as examples. Extended civil liability can also apply to certain arrangements that are not a direct contract for work or services. The check is meant to show whether someone may do the work in question, including any restriction on the type of work or the hours.
In February 2024 the starting point rose from £15,000 to £45,000, and the repeat-offender level from £20,000 to £60,000 per illegal worker.
Where the circumstances and the legal requirements allow, the consequences are a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, or a conviction for illegally employing a person, with up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine. Those exploiting migrants can face facilitation or trafficking convictions and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Also listed were closure of the business, a compliance order from the court, disqualification as a director, loss of the ability to sponsor migrants travelling to the UK, seizure of earnings from the illegal working, and the review and possible revocation of a licence in the alcohol and late-night refreshment sector or the private hire and taxi sector.
Between 1 January and 31 June, immigration enforcement carried out 7,220 illegal-working visits and made 4,756 arrests, a rise of 31% in visits and 20% in arrests compared with 2025. More than 1,200 businesses found to be employing people illegally were given civil penalties, facing fines of more than £74 million. It was the most successful start to a year on record for this enforcement. Since the Government came to power, arrests for illegal working have risen by 122% against the two years immediately before the election, and visits to businesses suspected of using illegal workers have risen by 111%, with 25,000 visits.
The clauses that fell
The new clauses were not accepted. The immediate priority is to apply the right-to-work changes just brought in, and then to consider whether further steps are needed. The committee rejected new clauses 70, 71 and 72.