Immigration enforcement surge in month since PM’s pledge to tackle illegal working

• A total of 1,152 immigration enforcement visits have taken place across the UK since 11^th December - an almost 10% increase
• Enforcement visits resulted in 362 arrests
• Ministerial taskforce to remove illegal migrants 
• 92 illegal working civil penalties issued with a value of £1.5million
• Immigration Minister is committed to going ‘further and faster’ to prevent illegal working abuse

The Home Office has ramped up immigration enforcement activity in the month since the Prime Minister’s pledge to boost raids on illegal working.

A total of 1,152 immigration enforcement visits have taken place across the UK to identify illegal working since 11^th December, marking an almost 10 per cent rise on visits completed in the previous five weeks.

The increase in enforcement comes as the Home Office establishes the UK’s first cross-government ministerial taskforce on immigration enforcement, which will ensure every available power across government is utilised to support law enforcement activity to identify and reduce illegal migrants in the UK, and ensure only those eligible can work, receive benefits or access public services.

It will examine how to protect access to rented accommodation, bank accounts, healthcare, education, driving licences, and public funds to only those eligible. The new enforcement taskforce, chaired by the Immigration Minister, will focus in its first meeting on illegal working and how enforcement activity can be maximised, including the rapidly growing gig economy.

In December, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced plans to tackle illegal working and immigration, including by hiring 200 new Immigration Enforcement staff and restarting data sharing with banks to ensure those here illegally do not have access to bank accounts.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said:

“Illegal working causes untold harm to our communities, cheating honest workers of employment, putting vulnerable people at risk, and defrauding the public purse.

“Our Immigration Enforcement teams are working round the clock to bring those violating our laws to justice. It's our priority to crack down on this crime and empower law enforcement to remove illegal migrants.

“With support from our new enforcement taskforce, we will go further and faster to prevent the abuse of our laws and borders and crack down on individuals exploiting the generosity of the UK taxpayer.”

Since mid-December Immigration Enforcement action has included:

• Enforcement visits since mid-December resulted in 362 arrests. In this timeframe, 92 illegal working civil penalties were also issued with a value of £1.5million.
• There have been 1,930 police enquiries referred to Immigration Enforcement teams of foreign nationals they arrest for further investigation.
• A further 58 people have been arrested for immigration offences, with 28 convictions secured since 13^th December.
• As part of the government’s commitment to remove those with no right to be in the UK, since the Prime Minister’s speech, 151 foreign criminals and immigration offenders have been removed on returns charter flights.
• Action to prevent illegal and dangerous small boats crossings has also continued, with three individuals arrested for piloting a small boat across the Channel under section 25 of the Nationality and Borders Act since mid-December.
• Two pilots of small boats were also convicted under section 24 of the Act with aggravating factors.

Notes to editors:

1. The data included in this release is taken from live operational databases and is subject to change.
2. Live operational data shows that from Sunday, 11^th December 2022 to Saturday, 14^th January 2023:
3. 1,152 enforcement visits were carried out
4. 362 arrests were made
5. 1,930 police referrals were made to Immigration Enforcement
6. In comparison, from Sunday, 6^th November to Saturday, 10^thDecember, the data demonstrates that:
7. 1,057 enforcement visits were carried out
8. 518 arrests were made
9. 1,715 police referrals were made to Immigration Enforcement
10. Between 11^th December 2022 and 14^th January 2023, 92 illegal working civil penalties were issued with a value of £1.5million.
11. Wider Immigration Arrest figures and small boats statistics included cover the period from Tuesday, 13^th December 2022 to Tuesday, 17^thJanuary 2023.
12. Returns figures for scheduled charter flights cover the period from Wednesday, 14^th December 2022 to Thursday, 19^th January 2023.
13. Since 1997, all employers have had a responsibility to prevent illegal working. They do this by conducting simple right to work checks before employing someone to make sure the individual is not disqualified from carrying out the work in question by reason of their immigration status.
14. If an employer is found to be employing someone illegally and has not carried out the checks specified in Home Office regulations, the employer may face sanctions including:
15. a civil penalty of up to £20,000 per illegal worker; 
16. in serious cases, a criminal conviction carrying a prison sentence of up to 5 years and an unlimited fine; 
17. closure of the business and a compliance order issued by the court;
18. disqualification as a director; 
19. not being able to sponsor migrants to travel to the UK; 
20. seizure of earnings made as a result of illegal working; and 
21. review and possible revocation of a license in the alcohol and late-night refreshment sector and the private hire vehicle and taxi sector.
22. It is a criminal offence for migrants to work illegally in the UK (where they are breaching their conditions or are unlawfully in the UK), including self-employment activity.  
23. The offence of working illegally carries a maximum penalty of 51 weeks (England and Wales), or six months’ (Scotland and Northern Ireland) imprisonment and/or a fine.
24. For further data information on Immigration Enforcement, please visit:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-enforcement-data-q3-2022
25. Last year, the Prime Minister made clear that we will restart data sharing to stop illegal migrants getting bank accounts, which help them live and work here. Measures will resume in April 2023.