Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

40 Charges in respect of passengers without proper documents

(1) This section applies if a person requiring leave to enter the United Kingdom arrives in the United Kingdom by ship, aircraft, road passenger vehicle or train and, on being required to do so by an immigration officer, fails to produce—

(a) a valid passport with photograph or some other document satisfactorily establishing his identity and nationality or citizenship; and

(b) if he requires a visa, a valid visa of the required kind.

(2) The Secretary of State may charge the owner of the ship, aircraft or vehicle or the train operator, in respect of that person, the sum of £2,000 or such other sum as may be prescribed.

(3) The charge is payable to the Secretary of State on demand.

(4) No charge is payable in respect of any person who is shown by the owner or train operator to have produced the required document or documents to him or his representative when embarking—

(a) on the ship or aircraft for the voyage or flight to the United Kingdom; or

(b) on the vehicle or train for the journey to the United Kingdom.

(5) No charge is payable by a train operator, or by the owner of a road passenger vehicle, in respect of a person (“A”), if he shows that—

(a) neither he nor his representative was permitted, under the law applicable to the place where A embarked on the journey to the United Kingdom, to require A to produce to him when embarking the required document or documents;

(b) he had in place satisfactory arrangements (including, where appropriate, arrangements with other persons) designed to ensure that he did not carry passengers who did not, or might not, have documents of the required kind;

(c) all such steps as were practicable were taken in accordance with the arrangements to establish whether A had the required document or documents; and

(d) all such steps as were practicable were taken in accordance with the arrangements to prevent A’s arrival in the United Kingdom where—

(i) A refused to produce the required document or documents to a person acting in accordance with the arrangements; or

(ii) for other reasons it appeared to that person that A did not, or might not, have the required document or documents.

(6) For the purposes of subsections (4) and (5), a document—

(a) is to be regarded as being what it purports to be unless its falsity is reasonably apparent; and

(b) is to be regarded as relating to the person producing it unless it is reasonably apparent that it relates to another person.

(7) Subsection (8) applies if—

(a) a person arrives in the United Kingdom in circumstances in which the Secretary of State is entitled to impose on the owner of a road passenger vehicle a charge under this section in respect of that person; and

(b) the vehicle arrived in the United Kingdom in a ship or aircraft.

(8) The Secretary of State may impose a charge in respect of the arrival of the vehicle, or a charge in respect of the arrival of the ship or aircraft, but not in respect of both.

(9) The Secretary of State may by order provide that this section is not to apply in relation to passengers arriving in the United Kingdom on a train who embarked on the journey to the United Kingdom—

(a) in a country specified in the order; or

(b) at places so specified within a country so specified.

(10) The Secretary of State may make an order under subsection (9) only if he is satisfied that there is in force between the United Kingdom and the country concerned an agreement providing for the operation of United Kingdom immigration control in that country or for the checking of passports and visas there.

(11) “Road passenger vehicle” means a vehicle—

(a) which is adapted to carry more than eight passengers and is being used for carrying passengers for hire or reward; or

(b) which is not so adapted but is being used for carrying passengers for hire or reward at separate fares in the course of a business of carrying passengers.

(12) For the purposes of this section a person requires a visa if—

(a) under the immigration rules he requires a visa for entry into the United Kingdom; or

(b) as a result of section 41 he requires a visa for passing through the United Kingdom.

(13) “Representative”, in relation to a person, means an employee or agent of his.