Using Spot Checks to Prevent Illegal Working

Individuals working in the country illegally due to their immigration status will often be victims of abuse and exploitations or caught in a situation now defined as modern slavery.

Spot checks can be made to make sure as far as possible that everyone working on your site is doing so legally.

The Home Office’s recommended Right to Work checks, is a spot checking process that is straightforward and specifies that employers should:

• See the applicant’s original documents;
• Check that the documents are valid with the applicant present, either in person or via an online platform such as Skype;
• Make and keep copies of the documents and record the date you made the check.

The Home office recognises that employees may not have the necessary skills and procedures in place to weed out every false document and therefore have provided further guidance on what to check:

• If the documents are genuine, original and unchanged, and belong to the person who has given them to you;
• That the dates for the applicants right to work in the UK have not expired;
• Photos are the same across all documents and look like the applicant;
• Dates of birth are the same across all documents;
• The applicant has permission to do the type of work you are employing them for;
• Evidence of students’ study and vacation times;
• If two documents give different names, that the applicant has supporting documents showing why they’re different, such as a marriage certificate or divorce decree.

If you have any further doubts about a workers legitimacy, you can call the Home Office Sponsorship, Employer and Education Helpline on 0300 123 4699 to ask if there is an official record of the individual.

To find out more, click the link below.