The Home Office has published updated guidance on illegal working checks incorporating information on the new illegal working offences introduced by the Immigration Act 2016 on 12 July 2016. ‘An employer’s guide to right to work checks’ updates the guidance on conducting checks to prevent illegal working by providing information on two new criminal offences, i.e.: (i) where a person subject to immigration control works when disqualified from doing so, leading to up to six months’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine and where wages from illegal working can be seized – Page 4; and, (ii) where an employer employs an illegal worker when there is ‘reasonable cause’ to believe that the person has no right to work (this adds to the offence of ‘knowing’ the person has no right to work) – Page 5.

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