Avoiding discrimination while preventing illegal working

The Government has published its statutory Code of practice for employers on avoiding unlawful discrimination while preventing illegal working. The Code of practice provides practical guidance on how to avoid illegal discrimination when carrying out right to work checks on employees. 

Although the statutory Code does not of itself impose any legal obligations on employers, an employment tribunal may take the Code into account when determining whether there was discrimination when an employer carried out prevention of illegal working checks. 

The key point in the Code is that employers should have in place and follow clear recruitment practices which treat all applicants fairly and in the same way at each stage of the recruitment process. It states that provided that all applicants are asked, the employer can ask for appropriate documentation to carry out its checks.

The Code is available on the Government website.