As an employer you need to make sure all your employees, current and future, are entitled to work in the UK. Failure to do so can result in fines of up to £20,000 per illegal worker.
Not only can you be fined for hiring employees who are not entitled to work in the UK, your premises licence can also be affected.
Councils have the right to review a premises licence at any time. If they do so and are not satisfied that the licensing objectives and employment of individuals are being met, the premises licence can be revoked.
This scenario has happened recently where an employer was fined £15,000 for employing illegal workers – they also had their premises licence revoked, leading to the licensable activities ceasing.
Owners need to make sure they retain a high level of due diligence on the people they employ, examples of some checks are below which you may find useful:
Does the intended employee have a UK Passport?
Are they a British Citizen?
If the answer to the above questions are yes, then the employee is entitled to work in the UK.
If they have a passport but are not a British Citizen, do they have a certificate of Registration or Naturalisation as a British Citizen?
If the answer is yes, the employee will need to show proof of permission. They will need to provide an official letter from a government agency or previous employer showing their name and NI Number and a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British Citizen. You will need to take and keep copies of all documentation provided.
To be sure you are compliant, the below link to the gov.uk website is useful and tells you what documents you need to check when hiring new staff.
https://www.gov.uk/legal-right-work-uk
For any advice regarding your premises licence, please feel free to call our ‘Licensing Hotline’ on 01454 419 262 Ext 5.
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