The compliant environment is a series of administrative and legislative measures that aim to deter immigration offending. The compliant environment aims to: discourage those who may be thinking of coming to the UK unlawfully from doing so; secure compliance and support the enforcement of UK immigration laws; protect taxpayers’ money; and protect vulnerable migrants from the risk of exploitation by unscrupulous employers and landlords (Home Office, 2020a).

Evaluating the compliant environment is complex. A critical part of designing a full review of the compliant environment is to fully scope the remit of the evaluation through assessing the existing evidence base and identifying gaps. This report is part of the work to do that.

The report comprises 2 parts:

Part 1 is a rapid evidence assessment (REA) (HM Treasury, 2020) of existing academic and grey literature on the compliant environment, exploring key themes and gaps coming out of the assessment.

Part 2 looks at how a few European countries manage access to public services, and how these compare to the UK compliant environment. This review aims to explore what lessons we can draw from other countries and how best to use international studies in evaluating the compliant environment.