The UK Border Agency (part of the UK Home Office) is now more persistent than formerly both in tracking down instances of illegal working and in issuing civil penalties (fines) to those employing migrant workers without the correct permission to work here. In February 2008 the Border Agency introduced the latest regime of civil penalties with a potential maximum fine of £10,000 per instance of illegal working, i.e. for each worker found to be working illegally (see notes at Immigration/illegal workers and/or at Acts of Parliament etc/Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 ).

Employers and others sometimes wrongly believe that individuals with visas automatically have the right to work in the UK. However this is not so. There are many instances where individuals have an unexpired visa for the UK stamped in their passport but do not have the right to work in the UK. This could be for several reasons, for example:

• the individual's visa may not permit full time work, or may not allow the holder to work at all (this will not always be apparent from looking at the visa);
  
• the individual's visa may only permit them to work for a specific employer. Again, this is not always obvious from looking at the visa;
  
• the validity of the individual's visa may have ceased prior to the expiry date of the visa;
  
• the individual may be a non-visa national in the UK without a visa, believing they have the right to work here as a business visitor.

The Border Agency will not accept ignorance of the rules as an excuse to the civil offence of employing someone illegally. All employers have a duty to prevent illegal working (see Immigration/illegal workers ).

For practical advice on work permit and immigration matters, we recommend contacting the independent UK Work Permits Ltd consultancy of Hammersmith, West London (tel 0845 226 4030) whose help in preparing this note is gratefully acknowledged.

See also Immigration/Points system overview and/or Immigration/Who can work in the UK and/or Immigration/Visa types .