Ensuring your workers are eligible to work in the UK

Checking a prospective worker's entitlement to work in the UK

As an employer, you need to ensure that each prospective worker is eligible to work in the UK. To do this, you must establish a statutory excuse before their employment commences.

Who is an employer?

An employer is defined as a person who employs an individual under a contract of employment.

This can be a contract of service or an apprenticeship. The contract can be expressed either orally or in writing. See our guide on the employment contract.

Checking the right to work in the UK

To establish a statutory excuse against liability for a civil penalty, your prospective worker must provide you with an original version of one of the specified documents from List A, or a specified combination of two documents from List B.

Download guidance on checking List A and List B documents from the UK Border Agency website (PDF, 183K) - Opens in a new window.

You should ask them to provide the documents before they start work, eg you could ask:

shortlisted applicants to bring the appropriate document(s) when they come for an interview
the successful applicant to provide the appropriate document(s) before you make them an unconditional job offer

Once the worker has presented you with the necessary document(s), you must:

satisfy yourself that the document(s) are valid and genuine, and have not been tampered with
check that any photographs and birth dates on the documents match the applicant's appearance
check information in the job application against the documents to ensure the details match up
check that the document(s) allow the worker to do the work on offer

Note that you are not expected to be an expert on forged documents. All you need to do is conduct simple - but careful - visual checks without the need for training or technological aids, to satisfy yourself that the document(s) presented are genuine, and relate to the person presenting them.

If you are not sure whether or not a document is valid, call the Home Office UK Border Agency Sponsorship and Employers' Helpline on Tel 0300 123 4699.

If the worker provides a document, or documents, from List B, you must repeat the checks at least once every 12 months to retain the excuse until they provide a specified document, or documents, from List A, or they leave your employment.

Use our interactive tool to check if your workers are eligible to work in the UK.

In order to avoid racial discrimination, check all applicants' right to work in the UK - regardless of their race, ethnic or national origin, colour or (apparent) nationality.

Download the code of practice on preventing unlawful discrimination when checking the right to work in the UK from the UK Border Agency website (PDF, 183K) - Opens in a new window.

Copying and retaining records

Keep a record of relevant documents you are shown, by either photocopying them or scanning and saving them electronically on a non-rewritable disk, eg CD-R or DVD-R.

With passports and travel documents, copy:

the front cover
the date of expiry
any photographs and signature
all of the pages giving your potential employee's personal details including nationality
pages containing a UK government stamp, or endorsement allowing your employee to do the work you are offering

You should copy other documents in their entirety.

Keep copies of the documents until two years after the worker's employment ends. Having a record of every copied document will help you establish a statutory excuse if the UK Border Agency detects anyone working illegally for you.

If you lose any records, the UK Border Agency might look at your normal recruitment procedures when considering if you have established a statutory excuse, eg if you have a consistent practice of copying documents for each worker.

You should not retain a person's original documents, except for the purpose of copying them. The only exceptions are:

when an individual gives you a P45 as part of a combination of documents, you should retain part 2 of the document (which you must retain for three years to comply with HM Revenue & Customs rules)
when you employ someone for 24 hours or less and it is not practicable to obtain a copy of the documents, you can retain the document(s) while they work for you but you must have facilities for keeping them safe

You must not keep a potential worker's original documents for more than a day. If you deliberately keep, or retain without consent, a person's passport or other original documents belonging to them, you may be guilty of an offence.

Penalties for employing an illegal worker

You can receive a civil penalty of up to £10,000 per illegal migrant worker if you do not establish a statutory excuse.

However, if you know that you are employing a person who is not permitted to work, you will not be entitled to the excuse.

In addition, you could be prosecuted for the offence of knowingly employing an illegal migrant worker. If you are convicted under this offence, you could face an unlimited fine and/or a prison sentence of up to two years. You can find guidance on preventing illegal working on the UK Border Agency website - Opens in a new window.

Reporting immigration offences

If you suspect that a job applicant is in the UK illegally or has no right to work in the UK, you should report them by calling the Home Office UK Border Agency Sponsorship and Employers' Helpline on Tel 0300 123 4699 or by sending an email to UKBApublicenquiries@ukba.gsi.gov.uk.

You can read guidance on reporting an illegal immigrant via email on the UK Border Agency website - Opens in a new window.

Subjects covered in this guide

Introduction
Checking a prospective worker's entitlement to work in the UK
Those who don't need permission to work in the UK
Employing those who need permission to work in the UK
Employing workers from EEA countries in Eastern Europe
Compliance checks and penalties for immigration offences
Here's how migrant workers contribute to our workforce
Here's how we check the entitlement of our staff to work in the UK
Here's how we support our migrant workers

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