Civil Penalty Fines

The importance of civil penalties for illegal working offences will increase in coming years.  Penalties are typically in excess of £10,000 per employee.  Your business should have legal support in addressing and objecting to such penalties.  

Who does this impact?

Companies who have hired employees without permission to work in the UK can be fined up to £20,000.  Many organisations find they are asked to pay these penalties due to a mistake in the onboarding process.  No fine is payable at all for organisations who have hired such employees but made a suitable check before the start of their employment.

Who is this for?

The penalty can be reduced or removed if any of the following can be established:

• The individual concerned is not an employee of the organisation or did not work there;
• The right-to-work check was properly conducted and any defect in the document reviewed; was not clear to the organisation based on a normal visual inspection;
• The current rules in respect of right-to-work have not been adhered to but those in place at the time of employment, such as the COVID-19 adjusted check, were followed.
• There is mitigation for failure to make the check correctly.

Why use Muldoon Britton?

With immigration specialist lawyers, Muldoon Britton is well placed to represent you in communication about immigration civil penalties.  We can:

• Review the penalty and basis for it, together with your right-to-work checking systems
• Advise of any defence or mitigation of the civil penalty possible
• Make the necessary representations with supporting evidence to UK Visas and Immigration
• Assess any legal basis to object to any further decision to maintain the penalty
• Audit right-to-work systems
• Train your staff to operate these systems effectively.

For legal assistance with UK penalty fines, please contact our team using the form below.