--- title: How a Right to Work Failure Can Cost You Your Premises Licence description: One illegal worker cost a Horsham restaurant a £40,000 penalty and its premises licence. How a right-to-work failure becomes a licence review. source: Duty Room source_url: https://dutyroom.com published_on: '2026-07-14' updated_on: '2026-07-14' market: uk sectors: - all canonical_url: https://dutyroom.com/uk/briefings/right-to-work-licence-review --- # How a Right to Work Failure Can Cost You Your Premises Licence One illegal worker cost a Horsham restaurant a £40,000 penalty and its premises licence. How a right-to-work failure becomes a licence review. A restaurant in Horsham had one illegal worker. The Home Office issued the operating company a £40,000 civil penalty. When it went unpaid, the council revoked the premises licence. The restaurant didn't lose its licence because of a string of failures. It lost it over one worker on a visitor visa, one check that didn't hold up, and a penalty that triggered a chain the operator never saw coming. That chain runs through a part of the law most operators have never read. ## The Home Office can review your licence Since 6 April 2017, the Home Office (Immigration Enforcement) has been a [responsible authority](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/powers-and-operational-procedure/preventing-illegal-working-in-licensed-premises-and-the-home-office-role-as-a-responsible-authority-in-england-and-wales-accessible) under the Licensing Act 2003 for any premises licensed to sell alcohol or provide late-night refreshment. That gives it standing to apply for a review of your premises licence on crime and disorder grounds, the same power held by the police, fire service, and environmental health. The mechanism is [section 51 of the Licensing Act](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/51). Any responsible authority can apply to the licensing authority for a review at any time. The Home Office doesn't need to wait for a conviction. An unpaid civil penalty, a pattern of illegal working, or evidence from a single enforcement visit can be enough. A factory that fails a right-to-work check faces a fine. A pub that fails the same check faces a fine and a threat to the licence that lets it trade. ## How it escalates The Home Office [published guidance](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/powers-and-operational-procedure/preventing-illegal-working-in-licensed-premises-and-the-home-office-role-as-a-responsible-authority-in-england-and-wales-accessible) describes a stepped approach. When one or two illegal workers are found and it's a first offence, Immigration Enforcement typically sends a warning letter rather than requesting a review immediately. The operator gets a chance to fix the problem. That stepped approach disappears in serious cases. Locked fire exits. An illegal worker with sole day-to-day responsibility. Three or more illegal workers. Previous warnings ignored. In those circumstances, the Home Office goes straight to a review application. Royal China in London triggered three separate Immigration Enforcement visits that found twenty illegal workers and drew £470,000 in civil penalties. Westminster City Council was asked to revoke the premises licence. In August 2024, its licensing sub-committee did. A takeaway in Lancaster: immigration breaches, with police and council reports raising modern slavery concerns, including alleged passport retention, which the operator disputed. £110,000 in fines. Licence revoked; an appeal is pending. ## The review hearing Once the Home Office applies for a review, a 28-day consultation period follows. Your [licensing sub-committee](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/52) then holds a hearing. Three councillors, a quasi-judicial process, and a range of outcomes that escalate fast: - Modify your licence conditions - Exclude a licensable activity (lose late-night refreshment but keep alcohol, for example) - Remove your Designated Premises Supervisor - Suspend your licence for up to three months - Revoke it entirely The [section 182 guidance](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-memorandum-revised-guidance-issued-under-s-182-of-licensing-act-2003/revised-guidance-issued-under-section-182-of-the-licensing-act-2003-december-2023-accessible-version) says the committee must take steps that are "appropriate and proportionate" to promote the licensing objectives. Where premises have been used for illegal working, the same guidance expects revocation to be seriously considered, even on a first review. The numbers bear this out. In the year ending March 2024, [412 premises licence reviews](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/alcohol-licensing-england-and-wales-april-2023-to-march-2024/alcohol-licensing-england-and-wales-april-2023-to-march-2024) were completed across England and Wales. 40% ended with the licence revoked or the club premises certificate withdrawn. Another 12% in suspension. When your licence reaches a review hearing, roughly half the time it comes out revoked or suspended, and most of the rest come out with new conditions attached. ![Of 412 premises licence reviews completed in England and Wales in the year to March 2024, 40% ended with the licence revoked or the certificate withdrawn and another 12% in suspension. Source: Home Office alcohol licensing statistics.](https://dutyroom.com/assets/figures/uk/review-hearing-outcomes-746dada0.png) | Outcome | Share of reviews | |---|---| | Licence revoked or club premises certificate withdrawn | 40% | | Suspended | 12% | | Other outcomes (conditions modified, activity excluded, DPS removed, etc.) | 48% | | Total (412 reviews) | 100% | Premises-licence review outcomes in England and Wales, year ending March 2024. Of 412 reviews, 40% ended in revocation or withdrawal and another 12% in suspension. Source: [Home Office, Alcohol licensing, England and Wales, April 2023 to March 2024](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/alcohol-licensing-england-and-wales-april-2023-to-march-2024/alcohol-licensing-england-and-wales-april-2023-to-march-2024). ## Conditions that tighten the trap Even if a review doesn't end in revocation, the conditions imposed can make future compliance harder to maintain. The Home Office guidance gives examples: requiring right-to-work checks for all staff, requiring documentation to be retained and accessible on demand, requiring staff to produce work authorisation documents to immigration officers during a visit. Where a licence carries those conditions and they aren't being met, the premises is in breach independently of any immigration finding. That breach is itself grounds for a further review and a criminal offence under the Licensing Act. Some operators discover conditions they didn't know they had. Premises licences can carry right-to-work conditions that never surfaced at grant or transfer; once present, they bind on the same footing as any other licence condition. ## The cascade A right-to-work failure at a licensed premises doesn't sit in one regulatory box. It sets off a sequence. Immigration officers enter under [section 179 of the Licensing Act](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/17/section/179), which gives them a right of entry, without a warrant, to premises they have reason to believe are being used to sell alcohol or provide late-night refreshment. They find an illegal worker. A civil penalty lands under immigration law. Then, separately, a referral to the licensing authority for a premises licence review under the Licensing Act. Two regimes, two sets of consequences, from the same shift on the same Tuesday night: a penalty that costs money, and a review that decides whether you can open the doors tomorrow. The [briefing on enforcement visits](https://dutyroom.com/uk/briefings/immigration-enforcement-licensed-premises) covers what happens when Immigration Enforcement arrives and how section 179 works. The check process, the document lists, and the statutory excuse that protects you are covered in our [right-to-work checks briefing](https://dutyroom.com/uk/briefings/right-to-work-checks-hospitality). This piece is about what happens after: the licensing consequence that turns an employment compliance failure into an existential threat to the business itself. A correct right-to-work check before employment begins stops the cascade before it starts. The copy in your file, at the premises, is your proof. --- Published by [Duty Room](https://dutyroom.com/uk/), software for organizing, tracking, and evidencing operational compliance.