The Immigration Act 2016 received Royal Assent on 12 May. It contains a wide range of measures, which include new rules intended to crack down on businesses that employ those who do not have permission to work in the UK and to prevent employers from exploiting vulnerable migrants.
The Act will:
- extend the existing criminal offence of knowingly employing an illegal migrant to include cases where the employer is considered to have 'reasonable cause to believe' that a person is an illegal worker;
- increase the penalty for knowingly employing an illegal worker from a maximum custodial sentence of two years to one of five years; and
- equip immigration officers with enhanced search and seizure powers to collect evidence, and introduce a power to close, for up to 48 hours, the premises of employers who continue to flout the law by employing illegal workers. What happens next will depend on whether or not the employer can prove that they have carried out 'right to work' checks.
The Act will also make illegal working a criminal offence in its own right, punishable by a maximum custodial sentence of six months and/or a fine. This measure will allow wages paid to illegal workers to be recoverable under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
To crack down on exploitation in the labour market, which often appears to involve vulnerable migrant workers, the Act will create a new Director of Labour Market Enforcement to oversee the relevant enforcement agencies in order to provide a coherent enforcement strategy to deal with non-compliance.
Over the coming months, following consultations on the detail, regulations will be produced implementing the measures contained in the Act.
The Government has made available a range of factsheets, covering the various sections of the Act, at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-bill-2015-16.
Advice for employers on the checks on an individual's right to work in the UK that should be carried out can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/employers-illegal-working-penalties.
For further information on this issue or other employment law matters, please contact one of the employment law team
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