Schedule 6: Working in United Kingdom Waters: consequential and related amendments
- This schedule is supplementary to section 42 and makes consequential amendments to enforcement provisions. It makes a number of amendments to the Immigration Act 1971 and the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.
- Paragraph 2 inserts a new subsection 1A after section 8(1) to make clear that those who are migrant workers do not benefit from the exemption in section 8(1) of the 1971 Act.
- Paragraph 3 inserts new subsection 1ZA after section 11(1) to direct readers that they may also need to consider section 11(A) to understand the meanings of "arrival" and "entry".
- Paragraph 4 amends section 28 (proceedings for offences) and inserts new subsection A1 before subsection (1) to ensure that illegal working offences committed in the UK’s territorial seas can be prosecuted. These amendments will allow the proceedings related to those offences to be taken at any appropriate location in the UK, and not limited to the location where the offence took place.
- Paragraph 5 amends section 28L by inserting new subsection 1A to provide that a structure, artificial island or installation in the United Kingdom’s territorial seas would be counted as premises for the purposes of exercising enforcement powers.
- Paragraphs 6-8 make amendments to section 28M, 28N and 28O to ensure that existing maritime enforcement powers available in connection with specified offences are available in respect of illegal working offences.
- Paragraph 9 amends schedule 2 to clarify that immigration officers are able to examine individuals whom they have reason to believe have arrived for the purpose of working in UK waters for the purposes of checking they have permission to enter or remain, just as they can do now on the UK landmass.
- Paragraph 9, sub-paragraph 3 confirms that the obligations on captains of ships or aircraft arriving in the UK to ensure the orderly conduct of examination of individuals by immigration officers apply equally to those carrying offshore workers arriving in UK waters.
- Paragraph 9, sub-paragraphs 4-5 confirm that the powers to require information about those arriving to work in UK waters can be exercised in the same way as advance passenger information regulations are applied on the UK landmass.
- Paragraph 10 amends schedule 4A to ensure maritime enforcement powers are available in respect of illegal working offences
- Paragraph 11 amends section 21 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 to make employing migrants in the territorial seas without permission to work a prosecutable offence. These amendments will allow the proceedings related to those offences to be taken at any appropriate location in the UK, and not limited to the location where the offence took place
