What changed on 13 February 2024
The government increased civil penalties under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. Maximum penalties rose from £20,000 to £45,000 per worker for a first breach. Repeat-offence penalties rose from £30,000 to £60,000 per worker. These changes were introduced alongside the government's commitment to increase enforcement activity — more visits, more penalties, higher stakes.
Which sectors are most targeted
Home Office enforcement is not random. It is intelligence-led and sector-focused. Construction, hospitality (restaurants, hotels, food service), care (care homes and domiciliary care), security, and cleaning and FM are all active enforcement targets due to their high proportions of workers with time-limited right to work. If your business falls into one of these categories, the probability of an enforcement visit is higher than the national average.
How enforcement visits work
Enforcement visits are unannounced. An officer may arrive at your premises at any time during business hours and request access to your Right-to-Work records for all workers on site. You cannot delay the visit to 'get your records in order'. You are legally required to cooperate. If your records are incomplete, out of date, or missing — the penalty process begins immediately.
What protects you
The statutory excuse protects employers who: (a) conducted a Right-to-Work check before employment started; (b) checked a document from the correct Home Office list; and (c) conducted timely re-checks for workers with time-limited leave. The key word is timely — late re-checks, even by one day, do not give you the statutory excuse for the period the worker was working without confirmed right to work.