Landlords being forced to carrying out checks on the immigration status of potential tenants is encouraging and even facilitating racial discrimination, City law firm Bates Wells has argued.

The UK Home Office is launching a new online service this week (25 November).

Bates Wells warned this service is likely to increase publicity around these checks and lead to more landlords screening out foreign applicants, without going through the proper checking process.

The new service is the latest effort by the Home Office to streamline processes through digitisation.  

Landlords who fail to undertake these immigration status checks can be fined £1,000 for a first offence and £3,000 for a...