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The Civil Penalty Scheme and the Right to Work Checks

The Civil Penalty Scheme and the Right to Work Checks

The Civil Penalty Scheme is designed to encourage Employers to comply with its duties to prevent illegal working by carrying out right to work checks.

The United Kingdom applies tough sanctions to Employers who are found to employ individuals without the appropriate permission to work. Employers protect against this by conducting right to work checks accurately.

The Immigration Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 – this is the primary legislation on illegal working in the United Kingdom as set out in Section 15 to 25.

Section 15(1) - an Employer found to be employing an individual who requires but does not have the right to work or is working in breach of conditions of leave may face a civil penalty of up to £20,000.00 per breach.

Section 15(3) - an Employer will excused from paying a civil penalty if they can demonstrate that they have carried out a compliant right to work check. If the check has been done accurately this will provide a statutory excuse and the employer must be able to show that this is the case

All individuals must be checked that they have the right to work BEFORE they are employed.

Checks should be made during a recruitment process at the same stage for all individuals and not only to those who may look or sound foreign, e.g. at the stage when Candidates are short listed for interview.