Recruiters must tighten up their procedures to comply with new rules designed to combat illegal workers, under changes to the Asylum and Immigration Act.

Agencies must now check EU accession state workers are registered to work and companies assisting with work permits must register with the immigration commissioner. Full details are available on the home office website at homeoffice.gov.uk.

Workers from eight out of the 10 accession countries – Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Estonia – need to register with the home office within a month of taking a job in the UK.

Recruiters will have to take a photocopy of a worker’s application for registration and retain the registration certificate when it arrives. Workers from Malta and Cyprus are excluded.