New penalties for employing illegal workers

Is this the latest example of regulation and red tape piled on to businesses to 'encourage' them to act as agents of the Government - where there own departments appear to be less than effective in enforcing their own regulation?

Criminal and civil penalties may be meted out after 29th February to employers who employ illegal workers. If any worker has not been granted permanent rights to work in the UK it becomes the employers' responsibility to check periodically on their continuing right to work, rather than simply carrying out an initial check at the outset.

The danger here, especially for smaller businesses whose systems may be less formal than larger organisations with specialist HR departments, is the possibility of falling foul of anti-discrimination law by making what might seem perfectly reasonable choices to avoid the new penalties.