In this episode of The Inside Track, partner Grace Shie and counsel James Perrott break down the United Kingdom’s right to work regime by which employers verify the work authorization or immigration permission of their workforce. Grace and James review the core verification routes, civil penalty and criminal offence framework, and available statutory defenses. They share best practices for navigating heightened enforcement—addressing sponsor license exposure, reputational risk, and what to do when instances of “illegal working” are identified. Finally, they assess the UK Government’s potential extension of checks to contractors and gig economy workers, signaling the likely updates many employers will need to make to their workforce compliance programs.
Grace Shie: Welcome to The Inside Track. My name is Grace Shie and I lead Mayer Brown's Global Mobility Practice from Washington, DC. Today I'm joined by my colleague, James Perrott, who leads our UK immigration and European mobility practice.
James Perrott: Thank you, Grace.
Grace Shie: Hi, James. So we've had a few episodes that have focused on immigration enforcement, including workforce employment verification. The U.S. has quite a prescriptive system under the I-9 rules, and we are not alone in imposing these types of employee workforce verification requirements. So for today's episode, I've asked James to speak to us on immigration compliance in the UK, particularly the employment verification...
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