GOVERNMENT attempts to clamp down on people who employ illegal immigrants have not lived up to expectations, the Home Office said yesterday.

Tony McNulty, the immigration minister, said changes to asylum legislation were not as successful as hoped, and he pledged to toughen rules further in the future.

He told the Commons that the government was "firmly committed to preventing illegal migrant working and the misuse of our asylum seeking by those seeking financial advantage rather than protection".

But when Jim Sheridan, the Labour Paisley and Renfrewshire MP, challenged Mr McNulty to give evidence of how the government was dealing with rogue employers, the minister admitted that the law was not as tough as had been hoped.

Mr McNulty added: "Section 8 of the existing Act, if we were being honest, hasn't as successively as anticipated dealt with the issue from the employer point of view.

"Where it has been successful, it's very often been in areas other than under section 8, which is why we are looking at straightening up legislation.

"We all need to work, not only to secure a transparent managed migration system, but bear down as heavily as we can as equally on those who employ people illegally as well as the people here illegally themselves."