In force

Since 1 October 2026, right to work duties also cover subcontractors, online platform workers and some businesses that use another employer’s workers.

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The penalty is per worker, not per mistake.

Every number here is sourced, and none is a prediction about you.

The civil penalty.

£45,000

maximum civil penalty per illegal worker, first breach

Source: Figure from the civil penalty code of practice, in force 13 February 2024 (raised from £15,000). The Home Office employer guide (p. 60) states only up to £60,000 per illegal worker

£60,000

maximum civil penalty per illegal worker, repeat breach

Source: Figure from the civil penalty code of practice, in force 13 February 2024 (raised from £20,000). The Home Office employer guide (p. 60) states only up to £60,000 per illegal worker

The maximum is per illegal worker: a shift of four whose checks cannot be evidenced is four penalties, not one. They tripled on 13 February 2024 and are civil: no criminal conviction is required. The defence is a correctly performed check, made before employment started, with the prescribed evidence retained, and it is a defence only if you can show it. It also names penalised employers.

What else follows.

Licence suspension

You cannot assign new certificates while it lasts. Recruitment stops, and sponsored staff sit in limbo before any final decision.

Downgrade to a B rating

You continue sponsoring only by accepting an action plan, paying for it, and being checked against it.

Revocation

Certificates are cancelled and sponsored workers’ permission is normally curtailed. You leave the register, and cannot reapply for a cooling-off period.

Criminal liability

Knowingly employing someone without the right to work, or having reasonable cause to believe it, is a criminal offence, not a civil one.

It can reach the people behind the company

Many licence holders are owned or run by people who are themselves in the UK on a visa. A business that loses its licence may stop supporting the basis on which its own director is here, and a criminal matter is a suitability question for that person’s future applications.

Questions
Is a civil penalty really per worker?
Yes. The maximum is set per illegal worker, not per employer and not per visit. Four workers is four penalties: at the maximum for a first breach, £180,000.
We did check. Does that help?
Only if you can show it. The defence against a civil penalty depends on having carried out a prescribed check correctly before employment began and retained the prescribed evidence. A check you cannot evidence is, for this purpose, a check that did not happen.
What if the worker deceived us?
The guidance requires reasonable and proportionate steps to verify identity at the time. Where you made a prescribed check and were deceived anyway despite appropriate controls, the Home Office says it takes that into account, case by case.
Can a licence really be revoked over paperwork?
Yes. Keeping the records the guidance requires is a sponsor duty, and failing to is a ground the Home Office can act on. The finding is often not that an employer set out to break the rules but that it cannot demonstrate it followed them.
What happens to our sponsored staff if we lose the licence?
Their certificates are cancelled and their permission is normally curtailed. In practice you lose the workforce you built, and they carry the consequence personally.

Review the records available today.

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