The Home Office has announced that the Immigration Bill will include a range of new powers to deter people from trying to find work illegally and measures to deal more effectively with rogue businesses who offer them employment. A new offence of illegal working will allow wages to be seized as proceeds of crime. Anyone prosecuted for this new offence will face a sentence of up to six months in prison and an unlimited fine in England and Wales. New powers will make it easier to prosecute an employer who knows, or reasonably suspects, that the person they employ has no permission to work in the UK. The existing evidence requirement to prove this offence will be changed in order to boost prosecutions and the current maximum sentence will be increased from two to five years. Any employer who continues to flout the law and evade sanctions could see their business closed for up to 48 hours while they prove right to work checks have been conducted on staff. 

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