Prevention of Illegal Working
National Insurance number
We recommend that you always obtain a National Insurance number from all employees before they start working for you and preferably inspect their red and blue plastic card on which these numbers are issued.
New regulations and penalties about Prevention of Illegal Working came into force 29.2.08. In particular these state that obtaining a National Insurance number is not a valid check in isolation. There is an A list of documents which must be examined for regular UK residents and a B list for all others. B list documents need to be examined annually. There is a Home Office on line checking procedure for employers.
We recommend first checking the guidance booklet:
Prevention of illegal working - How to check that someone is entitled to work in the UK which also contains full and extensive practical guidance on the law for employers.
