With the publication of the Home Office’s Illegal working civil penalties for UK employers: 1 October 2025 to 31 December 2025, we know that over £18.7 million in fines were issued to 330 businesses in the last quarter of 2025.
We’re here to take you through some of the statistics, and what you can do to make sure your business doesn’t end up on a similar list of Home Office figures.
One thing to note before we begin: this list only contains a handful of penalties – ones where guilty parties were not able to pay within the 28-day payment window, or those who have been served with a further penalty. This is how you end up on the government’s “Name and Shame” list.
In a separate report, Illegal working and enforcement activity to the end of December 2025: by illegal working sector, the Home Office said that a total of 2,438 civil penalties were issued to employers, totalling over £130 million in fines.
Let’s take a look.
Penalties covered almost every county and every industry
The penalties listed in the “Name and Shame” report cover every area of the UK, across every industry. For example:
- Restaurants: Porto Douro Restaurant, Solihul – fined £20,000
- Care homes: Excell Care Services Ltd, Birmingham – fined £110,000
- Car washes: Soapy Joe’s Hand Car Wash, Grantham, Lincolnshire – fined £80,000
- Barbers: Maz Barber, Narberth, Wales – fined £80,000
- Shops: Continental Superstore, Huddersfield – fined £45,000
- Construction: Red Contractors Construction Ltd – fined £45,000
- Logistics: RTT Logistic Solutions Ltd, Birmingham – fined £135,000
- Energy: Goldbeck Solar Farm, Bristol – fined £200,000
The largest single penalty was issued to Sandu Site Solutions Limited (trading under the name trading as Pennys – Green Ore Farm Recycling) for a staggering £315,000.
In extreme cases, the Home Office can even convict and imprison guilty parties for up to five years if they knew or had ‘reasonable cause to believe’ that an employee was working without proper Right to Work permits.
How businesses can prevent illegal worker fines
Illegal worker fines arise when businesses are found to be employing workers without a valid right to work in the UK. Right to Work checks should be completed at the beginning of the hiring process, to make sure that candidates are eligible. It doesn’t matter if you’re a UK citizen or a foreign national working on a visa. All employees in the UK need a Right to Work check.
What does a Right to Work check look at?
A Right to Work check examines an individual’s documentation, inspecting:
- Document authenticity
- Expiry dates for relevant visas
- Consistency of dates across documents
- Accurate photography of the individual
These can be completed manually or via a Digital Right to Work check – though this is only for eligible documents, such as British or Irish passports/passport cards with a biometric chip.
The Home Office has two lists of documents that employers can receive to check an applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK. You can learn more about what’s included on these lists in our Right to Work FAQs.
How the process works with uCheck
Currently (as of June 2026), uCheck’s Right to Work process is only available alongside a DBS check. Here’s how everything works together, following the Digital Right to Work system:
- Make sure your applicant has an eligible document (e.g. in-date biometric British or Irish passport)
- Login to uCheck and select your DBS check, toggling ‘Digital Right to Work’
- Send the applicant a link to complete the check
- Your applicant will provide a photo of their document, and a selfie to verify their image, and our systems will validate everything
- Receive your confirmation email – then confirm the applicant who arrives to work matches the verified applicant
And just like that, you have a Statutory Excuse as well as a Right to Work audit trail, perfect for any Home Office inspections.
Maintain compliance with uCheck
We’re here to support your hiring needs. With fast, cost-efficient Right to Work checks, you can check and onboard employees at scale and maintain perfect compliance with Home Office regulations.
