Last week, on 29th February, new civil penalties for employing illegal immigrants were introduced.
OK so you don’t employ any immigrants at the moment – but this legislation could still affect you next time you recruit.
Before engaging an employee you must now take “all reasonable steps” to check their documentation. Exactly how you do this is not specified. In addition, some employees may have time limited leave to be in the UK so for them you must carry out repeat checks at least once a year.
For example, you must:
- verify that they are the rightful owner of the documents they present
- check the photograph and the date of birth against their appearance
- retain a copy or copies securely for a period of not less than two years after termination of the employment.
If the document is not a passport or other travel document you must keep a copy of the entire document. If it is then you must copy the front cover and any pages containing:
- the holder’s personal details including nationality
- the holder’s photograph
- the holder’s signature
- the date of expiry
- a visa or entitlement to enter or remain in the UK and undertake the work in question.
You may only keep an employee’s original documents for the period necessary for you to comply with the law.
Interestingly the legislation doesn’t give any advice on how you should treat potential recruits who clearly are British and have a National Insurance number. But it does say that by checking specified documents from every prospective employee you may “establish a statutory excuse against payment of a civil penalty for employing someone not entitled to undertake the employment you have available”. In other words, it’ll be your fault if anything goes wrong.
Apparently new codes of practice will be published soon which will help you carry out the appropriate checks and, in doing so, avoid discrimination (oh dear, I do hope so! – as if we haven’t enough to worry about).
This makes me suspect that this legislation has been rushed through and isn’t finalised – yet again. So keep a watch on the Border & Immigration or Business Link websites for updates.
