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Deliveroo, Just Eat Takeaway and Uber Eats have agreed to conduct direct checks on all UK riders’ immigration status after coming under pressure from ministers to tackle illegal working and exploitation in the sector.
The Home Office said on Tuesday that the three food delivery companies had committed to changing their processes to confirm substitute riders, who share accounts with people engaged directly by the groups, also had the right to work legally in the UK.
Ministers singled out the food delivery sector last year as part of a broader drive to cut net immigration, which hit a record 745,000 in 2022.
Home secretary James Cleverly on Tuesday said new figures for visa applications justified the policy changes he had made, with tighter rules for students leading to a “drastic” fall in the number bringing dependants.
The data also showed a sharp fall in visa applications for care workers. Since March they have been unable to bring family members with them, but many already working in the UK appear to have rushed to apply for dependent visas in the few months before the ban took effect.
Alongside tighter visa rules, the Home Office has stepped up enforcement action in sectors where it believes visa rules are being abused.
Robert Jenrick, then immigration minister, wrote to the three food delivery companies in November saying enforcement activity had exposed high levels of illegal working in the sector.
He blamed this on “business models which rely on individuals themselves to confirm a person’s eligibility to work, enable unchecked account sharing to take place and are completely unacceptable”.
Deliveroo and its competitors allow self-employed riders to appoint other people to complete work for them, saying riders are responsible for making sure their substitutes are over 18, have the right to work in the UK and can do so safely.
This right to appoint a substitute has been viewed by UK courts as a key feature of self-employment, helping Deliveroo fight off a legal case brought by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain.
The UK Supreme Court in November ruled that Deliveroo riders cannot be recognised as workers in an employment relationship or represented by trade unions for collective bargaining.
But the practice of substitution has become increasingly controversial as online marketplaces have developed, where riders rent out accounts.
The practice came under the spotlight last year following a report of the death of a 17-year-old who was working on a rented Deliveroo account, despite being below the minimum age.
Michael Tomlinson, illegal migration minister, said “illegal working puts their customers at risk, drives down wages and defrauds the taxpayer”.
Deliveroo said on Tuesday that it was “committed to strengthening our controls to prevent misuse of our platform”, after earlier this month rolling out a new tool to register substitutes, including checks on their right to work.
Uber Eats also said it planned to roll out identity checks, and Just Eat said it was working with industry and policymakers “to develop a solution which will ensure couriers substituting their work do so in accordance with the law”.
The IWGB union accused the government of scapegoating migrants with “bogus claims” that they were undercutting wages and risking public safety. It said it was already seeing “numerous dismissals of couriers with the right to work as a result of these checks malfunctioning”.