GB News efforts to highlight abuses within the food delivery sector have led to new tougher controls, aimed at stopping illegal immigrants being employed as delivery drivers.

The Home Office has confirmed that the three main food delivery companies will introduce digital checks on those delivering food orders.

More detailed analysis of whether migrant hotels are being used as hubs for food delivery drivers will also form part of the crackdown.

For more than two years, GB News has been highlighting how many account holders, for companies including Deliveroo and Just Eat, are sub-letting those accounts to illegal immigrants and asylum seekers with no right to work here.

The agreement between the Home Office and Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats will ensure delivery firms receive the latest information on the locations of asylum hotels, to help establish whether delivery activity can be traced to those addresses.

Under existing security measures, any delivery riders caught sharing their accounts with migrants who have no right to work in the UK will be suspended.

The main delivery companies say their efforts to crack down on illegal account sharing through real-time identity and right-to-work checks have already led to thousands of accounts being suspended.

Despite this, there continues to be widespread abuses by huge numbers of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.

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The Home Office said that under the new agreement, the delivery firms will be "empowered to go further in detecting patterns of misuse, identify unauthorised account sharing and quickly suspend accounts."

The new crackdown follows a commitment made by the three main delivery firms during a roundtable discussion with Home Office ministers last month.

New security measures include increased facial verification checks and fraud detection tools, to help ensure only verified users can access the food delivery platforms.

Today’s announcement is part of the Government’s work to step up enforcement across the UK, targeting illegal working hotspots, with a focus on the gig economy.

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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Illegal working undermines honest business, exploits vulnerable individuals and fuels organised immigration crime.

“By enhancing our data sharing with delivery companies, we are taking decisive action to close loopholes and increase enforcement.

“The changes come alongside a 50 per cent increase in raids and arrests for illegal working under the Plan for Change, greater security measures and tough new legislation.”

Over the past year, immigration enforcement teams have carried out more than 10,000 illegal working raids across multiple sectors.

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Those raids have resulted in around 7,000 arrests - up around 50% on the year before.

A Deliveroo spokesman said: “Deliveroo has led the sector in introducing security measures to prevent the abuse of our platform and tackle the sophisticated criminals seeking new ways to exploit all delivery platforms’ systems.

"We are fully committed to working with the government as we continue to collectively combat illegal working."

A Just East spokesperson added: “Just Eat is committed to tackling any illegal working via our platform.

"We continue to invest significant resources to strengthen our systems against abuse by individuals and organised criminal groups seeking to evade right to work rules.

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"We are working closely with the Home Office and our industry partners to address any loopholes in the industry's checks, as well as collaborating on data sharing and enforcement.”

The Government's Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is set to introduce further measures to tighten the laws around illegal working.

The law change will make it a legal requirement for all companies, including those in the gig economy, to check that anyone working for them has the legal right to do so.

Ministers hope this will help end the wide spread abuse of flexible working arrangements.