Government to crack down on illegal gig economy work

Plans to force food delivery groups and other gig economy companies to check if their employees are working illegally will reach the next stage as ministers launch a consultation on new laws.

The Home Office has announced that it would now be working closely with industry partners including Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, who have strengthened ID verification checks across their platforms. 

It has also implemented a data sharing agreement with the firms, to securely share locations of hotels used for asylum accommodation, in a bid to catch asylum seekers working illegally as delivery riders.

It comes as the number of illegal working arrests soared by 63% as Immigration Enforcement carried out the highest level of raids in British history.

New figures from the Home Office showed more than 8,000 illegal migrants have been arrested after 11,000 raids were carried out by Immigration Enforcement from October 2024 to September 2025.

This comes as the government is expanding right to work checks under new laws, to ensure it covers categories of employers where there are higher levels of illegal migrants seeking work, including gig economy employers.    

While it is a criminal offence for migrants to work illegally, only companies using traditional employer to employee contracts are obliged to verify someone’s immigration status and whether it permits them to work in the UK.

The new laws will close this loophole so there will be “no hiding place for illegal workers who flout the rules in the gig, casual, subcontracted and temporary worker economy”.

Bosses who fail to conduct these checks could be jailed for up to five years, face fines of £60,000 per illegal worker and have their businesses closed.