General
Home Office rules offer route to £0 clandestine fines
Richard Smith
04 Feb 2026
Good news. Fewer lorry drivers to face fines when ‘clandestine entrants’ have been found on board their trucks after the Road Haulage Association has led industry campaigning.
The Home Office has announced that truckers working for operators signed up to the Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Accreditation Scheme (CECPAS) can have their fines reduced to £0. This is when hauliers and drivers can show full compliance with the scheme’s prevention requirements.
However, despite this positive step, truckers and operators still face the risk of maximum fines up to £10,000 per clandestine entrant, under the Clandestine Entrant Civil Penalty Scheme (CECPS).
That’s why we continue to call for further changes to the scheme after industry concerns about how it’s managed and the punitive fines drivers and hauliers have faced.
Last year, we released our “Clandestine Entry in Road Transport and the UK response” report on how government and industry can better work together to stop people-smuggling gangs target UK-bound vehicles.
We’d also engaged with Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) before they produced a critical report about the scheme – and we urged ministers to adopt their recommendations in full.
This is a significant win for drivers and operators as we continue to work with officials to ensure that the CECPS treats our people fairly.