Business Immigration Services
Business Immigration Civil Penalty
Business Immigration Civil Penalty Solicitors in Manchester and London
The Home Office Civil Penalty Scheme was introduced to ensure employers are complying with immigration rules. This includes employer’s full compliance with the Right to Work checks to ensure that all employees have the correct permission to work for that business. Where an employer is found to be in breach of the Right to Work check they will be issued with a Civil Penalty Notice.
If you are found to be employing illegal workers you will be fined up to £20,000 per illegal worker. Civil Penalty Notices are issued under section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. The rule applies to all employers who ‘knowingly’ take on illegal workers with full awareness that they are breaking the immigration rules. The rule also applies to employers who ‘unknowingly’ take on illegal workers due to a lack of care and attention in their due diligence checks.
All employers should make sure they have strict checks to comply with when taking on new workers. The penalties for failure to comply are steep. If you do find yourself facing a Civil Penalty Notice you must take it seriously and take immediate action. You will only have 28 days to respond.
It is possible to mitigate the penalty if you can show mitigating factors such as co-operation with the Home Office and the number of offences you have previously committed.
Costs & Transparency
At Monarch Solicitors we provide highly competitive legal fees for clients wishing to challenge a Civil Penalty. We will provide you with a breakdown of the routine legal costs for a simple Civil Penalty appeal from the outset so that you can budget the costs and fees for the Civil Penalty appeal.
Contact Our Specialist Appeal & Judicial Review Solicitors
We would like to discuss your appeal & judicial review requirements directly to find out how we can help.
Please contact our specialist appeal & judicial review solicitors by sending an email to us at [email protected] and one of our solicitors shall call you back.
Alternatively, please call our immigration team on 0330 127 8888 for a free no obligation discussion.
Monarch’s award winning legal team are based in Manchester and London, serving clients nationally.
We are also able to leverage an international network spanning across Hong Kong, Turkey and Dubai to provide seamless assistance with cross-border matters relating to Business Immigration Civil Penalties.
FAQ
If you have received a civil penalty, you have the option to:
- Accept the civil penalty and pay the fine in full
- Accept the penalty and request to set up a payment plan to pay the penalty
- Reject and challenge the civil penalty
There is a strict 28 day deadline to reply to a civil penalty notice with no extension granted under any circumstances. Therefore, it is wise to act quickly so that you have the time to assess your options.
You must only challenge a civil penalty if you have a statutory excuse showing that you have conducted and completed the necessary employment checks in line with the Home Office criteria.
employers must obtain original documents showing the right of their employees to work and must retain a copy of the documents as well as certifying in writing that the right to work checks were completed and the date of when the checks were conducted.
The first step to challenge the civil penalty notice would be to make a formal objection to the Home Office in writing. If the Home Office rejects your challenge, then you have the right to appeal the decision at court within 28 days of the final decision of the Home Office.
Usually have 28 days to respond to a Civil Penalty Notice from the Home Office, you cannot extend this timeframe.
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