New Illegal Working Rules Expand Organisational Liability

Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 commences on 1 October 2026. This amends section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (2006 Act) to expand the definition of “employment” when determining whether an employer is liable for employing an adult subject to immigration control who does not have the correct permission to do the work in question. 

This summer, the Home Office published its draft code of practice relating to the changes. According to the code, from 1 October 2026, the Home Office will, in theory, be able to sanction organisations for illegal working not only by their own employees (under the expanded definition), but also by subcontractors’ employees, substitute workers and workers matched with clients (where a business operates as an online matching service).