Parts of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act, which came into effect at the end of last week, will require small businesses to understand and verify up to 13 different forms of identification when employing foreign workers, including recognising the passports of 27 EU member states.

Small businesses face fines of £10,000 if they employ people illegally, even if they do so without knowing it.

FSB employment chairman Alan Tyrrell said it was ludicrous to expect small businesses to understand and implement complicated immigration rules, pointing out that the guidance notes alone for this piece of legislation run to nearly 30 pages.

"It is totally unfair to expect small business owners to act as immigration officers and then threaten them with huge fines if they slip up," Tyrrell said.

"It is doubly unfair when the government then fails to adequately publicise the new rules. Immigration policy and the implementation of it is a matter for the government, not for small business owners."

The FSB has 210,000 members across the small business sector, including the print industry.