UK fines review follows BBC undercover report on solicitor’s advice

The BBC reports that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a review of how fines for employing people without the right to work are issued and collected. It follows the broadcaster’s undercover report that a solicitor suggested a way to avoid a £45,000 penalty by naming someone overseas as the owner of a business.

The solicitor, Alias Yousaf, was speaking to a reporter posing as the owner of a mini-mart. The BBC says Yousaf suggested finding someone abroad who would declare themselves the owner. The shop, worker and fine were all invented for the investigation.

A second undercover journalist then told Yousaf that he was not the shop’s owner, according to the BBC’s account of their recorded conversation. Yousaf replied: “If you’re saying that to me, then I can’t do that.” The BBC says he later stated that he could not pursue an untruthful case. Yousaf denies advising anyone to put a penalty in the name of someone who was not responsible for a business or to give false information to the Home Office. He says he challenges penalties lawfully and did not act for the reporter.

The wider question is whether the fines system can collect penalties that are properly owed. Citing Home Office figures, the BBC says at least £150m is currently outstanding. It also reports that fines worth £215m were issued between 2021 and 2025, while £60.5m was collected during that period. The Home Office cautioned that appeals, early-payment discounts and the time taken to pay mean those totals cannot simply be compared as a recovery rate.

Government guidance says an employer can face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per worker without the right to work and can object to a penalty notice. The undercover exchange does not establish that naming someone else as an owner would cancel a real fine. Mahmood told the BBC the review would seek to strengthen the response to non-payment and non-compliance.