With a number of Home Office official raids on businesses throughout 2019, which resulted in substantial fines for businesses, the importance of Right to Work checks has been brought to the forefront of business matters.

The current Right to Work process must be completed before a formal job offer and firms must check original documents in the presence of the applicant. Copies should then be kept on file. Businesses need to perform sufficient checks on dates, type of work that the applicant can carry out and also cross reference photographs – leaving no room for error.

If an organisation has ‘reasonable cause to believe’ one of their staff does not hold the correct eligibility paperwork, penalties can be ‘unlimited’ with five years in prison. Evidence must be able to support that the correct checks and recheck have been applied and if a business fails to prove that checks have been carried out to the necessary standard, they can expect fines of £20,000 per employee, loss of trading and be placed on Government ‘watch list.’

Employers are being urged by Home Office to review current procedures to ensure that they are compliant and avoid civil penalties.

All right to work checks must be conducted before commencement of employment – and should be an intrinsic part of any recruitment process. Here are the steps that a business should full complete before a formal offer of a position:

1. Obtain the employee's original Right to Work documents and pay particular attention to photographs, personal details, valid dates and job role activities.
2. Check that the documents are original and valid, in the presence of the applicant
3. Retain copies of the documents and keep them securely, recording the date of the check and date for any follow-up checks
4. Perform rechecks at the required time and again, keep copies of new documents.

Should you have any question about automated checks for Right to Work, speak drop our team an email or call us on 01778 382 707.