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Section 40: Charge in respect of passenger without proper documents

Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 · 1999 c. 33View on legislation.gov.uk

Part II: Carriers' Liability

This section applies if an individual requiring leave to enter the United Kingdom arrives in the United Kingdom by ship or aircraft and, on being required to do so by an immigration officer, fails to produce—

an immigration document which is in force and which satisfactorily establishes his identity and his nationality or citizenship, and
if the individual requires a visa, a visa of the required kind.

The Secretary of State may charge the owner of the ship or aircraft, in respect of the individual, the sum of £2,000.

The charge shall be payable to the Secretary of State on demand.

No charge shall be payable in respect of any individual who is shown by the owner to have produced the required document or documents to the owner or his employee or agent when embarking on the ship or aircraft for the voyage or flight to the United Kingdom.

For the purpose of subsection (4) an owner shall be entitled to regard a document as—

being what it purports to be unless its falsity is reasonably apparent, and
relating to the individual producing it unless it is reasonably apparent that it does not relate to him.

For the purposes of this section an individual requires a visa if—

under the immigration rules he requires a visa for entry into the United Kingdom, or
as a result of section 41 he requires a visa for passing through the United Kingdom.

The Secretary of State may by order amend this section for the purpose of applying it in relation to an individual who—

requires leave to enter the United Kingdom, and
arrives in the United Kingdom by train.

An order under subsection (7) may provide for the application of this section—

except in cases of a specified kind;
subject to a specified defence.

In this section "immigration document" means—

a passport, and
a document which relates to a national of a country other than the United Kingdom and which is designed to serve the same purpose as a passport.

The Secretary of State may by order substitute a sum for the sum in subsection (2).

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.