Compliance

by
UK Immigration Proposals

Summary

Compliance with UK immigration laws and rules is an essential part of an immigration system which operates fairly, robustly and with integrity. In the future border and immigration system, all non-UK  nationals – with the exception of Irish nationals – entering and remaining in the UK will be subject to UK Immigration Rules governing their stay and permitted activities. The overall aim is to encourage and support compliance. Migrants are expected to observe the conditions of their permitted stay and not to remain beyond the period of their lawful status. Those who breach our immigration laws and rules place
themselves at risk of exploitation by unscrupulous bodies such as organised crime groups, and rogue employers and landlords.

The Government is modernising the enforcement and compliance system to make better use of data to identify immigration offending and to enable employers and service providers easily to confirm a migrant’s status and entitlements through the provision of the new digital checking services. We will ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to protectvulnerable individuals and those who are lawfully present.

The overall aim is to encourage and support compliance. Strengthening our border and controlling immigration will ensure we can better deter and prevent abuse, so we can continue to act against illegal immigration. Deliberate or organised immigration offending will be tackled effectively through  intelligence-led enforcement action.

Securing compliance

12.1 Encouraging and supporting compliance will be at the heart of our future system. It is important that we enforce our laws and rules fairly and that individuals in the immigration system understand what is required and expected of them, and the possible consequences if they do not comply with these. We will work with other government departments and delivery partners to communicate this and to ensure we deliver sustainable outcomes.

12.2 Sanctions and enforcement action will be taken on a case by case basis and we will take all relevant steps to encourage and secure compliance, or voluntary departure, before any enforcement action is taken. Ultimately, where an individual has been given the necessary guidance and a reasonable amount of time to regularise their status or voluntarily depart from the UK, but fails to do so, or fails to comply with the conditions of their leave, we will seek to take appropriate action, including removing those individuals from the UK.

12.3 EU citizens in the UK at the end of the Implementation Period must apply for the EU Settlement Scheme by the end of the grace period (expected to end on 30 June 2021), if they intend to stay beyond that point. Those who do not, will not have leave to remain here and will not be able to demonstrate their rights to access work,benefits and services.

12.4 We recognise there may be exceptional circumstances why an individual might not  have applied for the EU Settlement Scheme at the right time, and we committed to the EU to taking a proportionate approach to anyone with a good reason. Where there are reasonable grounds for missing the deadline, we plan to allow EU citizens and their family members a further opportunity to apply. We will consider their circumstances carefully before applying any sanctions to ensure we can protect individuals in this cohort.

12.5 It is important that there are appropriate safeguards to protect vulnerable individuals and those who are otherwise lawfully present, but cannot demonstrate it. In light of events affecting the Windrush generation, we have been reviewing existing safeguards and have introduced additional support for those conducting entitlement and eligibility checks.

12.6 Providing a more migrant-oriented system will be particularly relevant for the future system in terms of reducing the exploitation of vulnerable groups and individuals, and to helping those legally in the UK to obtain the necessary documentation toevidence lawful status.Measures to control access to work, benefits and services in the UK

There are two types of control on access to work, benefits and services: Some apply automatically to everyone, as a matter of law, whilst others are targeted, applying to those unlawfully in the UK and relying on data-sharing and choices. Universal (reactive) checks, such as employers checking prospective employees’ right to work, and requiring individuals to show they are lawfully present in the UK, at the point ofaccess, and they have the right to access the service or the benefit they are seeking.

Most individuals do this by presenting appropriate documentation. Similar checks are conducted
by landlords before letting tenancies.

Targeted (proactive) checks, such as bank account closure and denial or UK driving licence revocation, are applied to those in the UK without lawful status. The Home Office shares data with other government departments and delivery partners to ensure known immigration offenders are not accessing taxpayer funded services incorrectly. These measures may currently only apply to those EU nationals whom we are seeking to deport or remove for breaching Treaty rights.

12.7 Beyond requirements and restrictions on who can enter and remain in the UK, our laws and rules govern the need to demonstrate the right to work and entitlement to access work, benefits and public services.

12.8 The future system will provide a flexible framework, but the public must have  confidence in our ability to control immigration and secure compliance. A recent YouGov poll showed 71 per cent of the public support a policy requiring people to demonstrate their right to live in the UK, for example, when taking up work, rentinga flat, or opening a bank account.

12.9 We are committed to supporting and protecting vulnerable people, as detailed in the previous chapter, but it is right that we have a range of measures and sanctions to encourage compliance and allow for appropriate enforcement action to be taken.We will continue to develop these arrangements so that more enforcement can take place in the UK, through improved data exchange between employers, HM  Revenue and Customs, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Home Office, rather than at the border or out of the UK.

12.10 We will continue to set out clearly to those wishing to come to the UK what is  expected of them and the consequences of not complying with immigration laws and rules.

12.11 Currently, as EU citizens are not subject to UK immigration control, they only need to provide their passport or national identity card to demonstrate their right to work or rent private property. There are also exceptions and exemptions on access to services and benefits that apply to EU citizens.

12.12 As the UK leaves the EU and Free Movement no longer applies, exceptions and  exemptions in UK immigration law on EU citizens’ ability to access benefits and services will be removed to create a unified system of entitlements for all foreign nationals subject to immigration control.

12.13 All EU and non-EU citizens will require the appropriate immigration status to demonstrate their rights and entitlements. It will no longer be enough for EU citizens lawfully in the UK to present their passport or national identity card to demonstrate their status.

12.14 However, when we move to the future system, we will not require employers to undertake retrospective right to work checks on existing EU employees.

Labour Market Enforcement

The Government is determined to tackle the exploitation of migrant workers by  businesses who seek to undercut legitimate competition and displace UK workers by evading obligations under tax, employment and national minimum wage and living wage legislation. We have introduced reforms to structures and enforcement powers to prevent labour market exploitation, including:

  • Legislating to introduce a Director of Labour Market Enforcement to set the strategic priorities for labour market enforcement bodies, including the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA);
  • Equipping the GLAA with stronger police-style powers in England and Wales to  investigate serious labour market offences across the economy, including modern slavery offences involving the maltreatment of workers;
  •  Preventing the employment of illegal workers, including civil penalties on employers of up to £20,000 for each illegal worker, prison sentences of up to fiveyears for those who deliberately employ illegal workers, and powers to close the business premises of repeat offenders;
  • Introducing a new system of compliance undertakings and orders for enforcing  bodies, including a two-year prison sentence for many labour market offences;
  • Investing significant additional funds in the HMRC National Minimum Wage Team, which has intervened in cases to secure money owed to workers in arears of unpaid wages and served civil penalties on non-compliant employers for breachingnational minimum and living wage legislation.
    Labour Market Enforcement Director

Since being appointed in January 2017, the Director, Sir David Metcalfe, has:

  •  Published his first full annual Labour Market Enforcement Strategy for 2018/19. As well as prescribing a strategic approach to achieve better compliance and enforcement, the Director made recommendations around tougher penalties for more serious or repeated labour market offences, tackling non-compliance insupply chains and highlighting current compliance gaps;
  • Worked closely with the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, including on the review of modern employment practices;
  • Established the ‘Information Hub’ to gather and process intelligence to identify key trends and issues from enforcement bodies;
  • Launched a programme of research to measure better the scale and nature of  non-compliance and to evaluate the work of labour market enforcement bodies;
  • Commenced work to deliver a second Labour Market Enforcement Strategy, whichis expected to be published in spring 2019.

12.15 We want to make the future system as transparent, digital and straightforward as possible for everyone, including employers and service providers – making use of improved data-sharing capabilities between other government departments to link together records, such as tax, benefit, and immigration in an automated way.

12.16 Since 2010, the Government has reformed the immigration system to securegreater compliance and reduce the scope for, and risk of, individuals living in the UK without lawful status. Measures in the 2014 and 2016 Immigration Acts build on strong foundations to ensure better control of migrants’ access to work, benefits and services. We have introduced tougher sanctions for those who employ or house illegal migrants. We have made it easier to detect migrants who have overstayed their permission to remain, and for employers and service providers to check an individual’s status and associated entitlements.

12.17 It is right that the Government is able to take appropriate enforcement action against those who break our immigration laws, against organised criminals who exploit people, and against those who employ and rent accommodation to immigration offenders having failed to discharge their responsibility to conduct proper status checks.

Detecting non-compliance: Exit checks

12.18 Exit checks were fully introduced in April 2015, and since then more comprehensive data on departures from the UK has been flowing from ports and carriers into Home Office systems. The data collected is showing high levels of compliance with immigration requirements, indicating that approximately 97 per cent of those coming to the UK on a visa departed when their leave expired.

12.19 We will continue to use this data to publish statistics on compliance rates, to inform  policy development and to reassure and improve public confidence in the future immigration system.

12.20 Currently, non-visa nationals are not included in the exit check data. Under the  future system, everybody wishing to come to the UK, be it for work, study or to visit, will need a digital permission. As an individual enters and leaves the UK, this will be digitally recorded and linked with their individual immigration status, so it will be clear whether that person has stayed beyond the permitted duration of their stay.This will support our ability to distinguish between the legal and illegal population
and take compliance and enforcement action where appropriate.

Intelligence-led enforcement

12.21 We will continue to be vigilant where deliberate attempts are made to break our immigration laws and rules, including where this involves organised crime groups, fraud and deception, links to wider criminality, and offences against migrants themselves.

12.22 We will continue to leverage a wide range of intelligence sources to detect immigration-related crime, working with partner organisations across international boundaries to gather, share and analyse data. We will also utilise modern data analytics tools to identify threats and patterns that allow us to alter controls on specific routes of entry to the UK or take targeted action to disrupt or dismantle
organised crime groups.

12.23 We will continue to deploy a spectrum of enforcement powers and capabilities to  ensure offending behaviour is held to account. Joint operations across UK agencies and international partners will continue to disrupt criminals though arrest and prosecution of individuals, as well as seizing assets gained through illicit activity.

Home Office Immigration Enforcement teams have disrupted 185 Organised Immigration Crime Groups since April 2018. Of these, 36 were serious organised crime major disruptions, where there has been a long term disruptive impact on the ability of the organised crime group to operate.

Case Study – Operation Boromo

mmigration Enforcement led a collaborative investigation with the Department for Work  and Pensions, which culminated in a confiscation order totalling £2.8 million pounds. The investigation targeted a crime group who arranged sham marriages and subsequent benefit fraud on an industrial scale. Six members of the gang, who abused the immigration system by arranging marriages allowing migrants to receive marriage certificates and to fraudulently to obtain National Insurance numbers to commit tax, benefit and travel ticket fraud against Eurostar and the SNCF railway companies, were jailed in 2016.
A confiscation investigation followed the court guilty verdict.

Home Office Immigration Enforcement teams have disrupted 185 Organised Immigration Crime Groups since April 2018. Of these, 36 were serious organised crime major disruptions, where there has been a longterm disruptive impact on the ability of the organised crime group to operate.

Case Study – Operation Boromo

Immigration Enforcement led a collaborative investigation with the Department for Work  and Pensions, which culminated in a confiscation order totalling £2.8 million pounds. The investigation targeted a crime group who arranged sham marriages and subsequent benefit fraud on an industrial scale. Six members of the gang, who abused the immigration system by arranging marriages allowing migrants to receive marriage certificates and to fraudulently to obtain National Insurance numbers to commit tax, benefit and travel ticket fraud against Eurostar and the SNCF railway companies, were jailed in 2016.
A confiscation investigation followed the court guilty verdict.