Illegal Workers Policy

Under United Kingdom immigration rules, it is a criminal offence to employ a person who is subject to immigration control and who has not been granted leave to enter or remain in the UK or does not have permission to remain in the UK. The Company has a legal obligation to carry out document checks to make it harder for people with no right to work in the UK to unlawfully obtain or stay in employment. It is also a requirement that the Company retains copies of the relevant documents. To avoid potential unlawful discrimination claims the Company will carry out appropriate checks on all candidates.

Compliance with the prescribed right to work checks results in the Company being excused from paying a civil penalty where it is found to have employed an illegal worker. This is referred to as a 'statutory excuse'. The Company must carry out the checks itself, it is unable to establish a statutory excuse if the check is performed by a third party, such as an independent payroll company.

The Company can rely on the statutory excuse under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, if it can demonstrate that prior to the candidate starting employment, it carried out either a documentary right to work check or an online check using the Home Office's Right to Work Checking Service.

When carrying out manual documentary checks, the Company will be required to check at least one of a range of documents verifying the individual's right to work in the UK. The Company must check that the documents are genuine and that the person presenting them is the prospective employee or employee, the rightful holder and allowed to do the type of work the Company is offering. The documents that the Company may accept are set out on two lists, List A and List B.

List A contains the range of documents that the Company may accept for a person who has a permanent right to work in the UK. If the Company conducts the right to work checks properly before employment begins it will establish a continuous statutory excuse for the duration of the person's employment and it will not be necessary to conduct any further checks.

List B contains a range of documents which may be accepted for a person who has a temporary right to work in the UK. Providing the Company carries out the checks correctly, it will establish a time-limited statutory excuse and will be required to conduct follow-up checks to retain the statutory excuse.

Where an employee has only limited permission to remain or work in the UK, the Company is required to note the expiry date of the documentation and put a reminder system in place to check the documents again prior to expiry. Should the Company be presented with documents indicating that an individual is a student with a limited right to work in the UK during term time, it must also check and copy evidence of their academic term dates.

The Company will retain copies of right-to-work documentation for the duration of the individual's employment and for a further two years thereafter, in line with Home Office guidance. Right-to-work checks are applied consistently to every candidate regardless of nationality, race or ethnic origin to ensure compliance with the Equality Act 2010 and to avoid unlawful discrimination.