Summary
- Complete the prescribed right-to-work check before someone starts work to establish a defence against a civil penalty.
- Monitor time-limited permission and complete required follow-up checks, noting the exception for settled and pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
- The expanded rules can cover certain contractors and contracting chains, with commencement dates affecting whether the civil penalty provisions apply.
- This article explains right-to-work checks for employers and businesses engaging contractors in the UK.
- LegalVision’s business lawyers specialise in advising clients on right-to-work compliance and business immigration.
Tips for Businesses
Assign responsibility for checks and keep evidence where authorised staff can find it. Review subcontracting and substitution arrangements alongside recruitment procedures. Speak to an immigration lawyer at LegalVision about checking workers and managing responsibility across contracting chains.
On this page
- What is a Right to Work Check?
- When Should a Right to Work Check Be Completed?
- How Can Employers Carry Out a Right to Work Check?
- What Is the Employer Checking Service?
- When are Follow-Up Right to Work Checks Required?
- What Changed From 1 October 2026?
- What About Contractors and Subcontractors?
- What is Extended Liability?
- What are the Penalties for Getting Checks Wrong?
- How Can Employers Avoid Discrimination?
- How Should Businesses Review Their Procedures?
- Key Takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions
A right to work check establishes whether someone has permission to work in the UK and can perform the work you offer. Employers should complete the appropriate Home Office checking process before the person starts work. A correctly completed check can provide a statutory excuse, meaning a defence against a civil penalty for illegal working. You must also retain evidence and complete any required follow-up checks to keep that protection. You should also check who actually performs the work when an agreement allows a substitute. This article explains right-to-work checks, follow-up checks, and the wider responsibilities that apply.
What is a Right to Work Check?
A right to work check is the process an employer follows to establish whether an individual has permission to work in the UK. It also establishes whether there are any restrictions on the work they can undertake.
Carrying out the check correctly can give an employer a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. This matters if the individual is later found to have been working illegally. Simply asking an individual whether they have the right to work is not enough. Employers must follow one of the Home Office-prescribed checking processes.
“Trace a substitute's route from approval to their first shift when you test your process. This helps you see whether your contract and identity checks work together”
When Should a Right to Work Check Be Completed?
An employer should complete the appropriate right to work check before the individual starts work. If an individual has time-limited permission to work in the UK, you may also need to check again before that permission expires.
Build checks into recruitment and onboarding procedures. Identify who completes the check, records the result, and monitors any follow-up date.
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How Can Employers Carry Out a Right to Work Check?
There are three main prescribed methods: a Home Office online check, a manual document check and an eligible digital verification check. Use the method appropriate to the individual’s evidence of their right to work.
Home Office Online Right to Work Check
Many individuals with UK immigration permission hold an eVisa, an online record of their immigration status. Where an individual has an eVisa, the employer should use the Home Office online right to work checking service.
The individual generates a right to work share code and gives it to the employer, along with their date of birth. The employer then accesses the Home Office service and checks the individual’s immigration status and any restrictions on their employment.
The employer should:
- access the employer-facing Home Office right to work service;
- check that the photograph relates to the person being employed;
- check that the individual is permitted to carry out the work being offered;
- check any restrictions attached to their immigration permission; and
- retain evidence of the online check.
Do not rely simply on a screenshot or information shown through the worker’s personal UKVI account. Use the prescribed employer checking service.
Manual Right to Work Check
You can still complete a manual check if the individual holds an acceptable original document. Follow the Home Office process in this order:
- Obtain the individual’s original acceptable documents.
- Check that the documents relate to the individual presenting them and appear genuine.
- Copy the relevant documents clearly.
- Record and retain evidence of when you carried out the check.
Keep records accessible to staff preparing for a Home Office compliance audit.
Digital Right to Work Check
Employers can use a registered Right to Work Digital Verification Service Provider in certain circumstances. This provider checks identity digitally using eligible documents.
This method is particularly relevant to British and Irish citizens using eligible passports or passport cards. Using a third-party provider does not automatically remove the employer’s own compliance responsibilities.
The employer must still satisfy themselves that the person presenting for work is the person whose identity and right to work have been checked.
What Is the Employer Checking Service?
An individual may have the right to work but be unable to prove it through the usual online or document-based process. For example, they may have applied to extend their immigration permission before it expired and are awaiting a decision.
In appropriate cases, the employer can contact the Home Office Employer Checking Service. The service can issue a Positive Verification Notice, a confirmation that the person has the right to work.
The Home Office guidance effective from 1 October 2026 explains how these notices work. A notice generally provides a statutory excuse for six months.
When are Follow-Up Right to Work Checks Required?
A follow-up check is usually required when an individual’s permission to work is time-limited. Monitor the person’s immigration expiry date if you intend to continue employing them. Complete the appropriate follow-up check on or before the date their permission expires.
The Home Office guidance confirms an exception for workers whose initial check establishes settled status in the UK. No follow-up check is required for workers with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme either. Keep a reliable system to record expiry dates and identify when further checks are required.
Planning to sponsor a worker from overseas? Download our free guide to sponsor licences, visa routes and your ongoing sponsor duties.
What Changed From 1 October 2026?
From 1 October 2026, the right-to-work scheme extends beyond traditional employment relationships. It includes certain worker contracts, individual subcontracting arrangements and online matching services.
The Home Office’s final employer guidance explains when the expanded civil penalty rules apply. For these additional direct working arrangements, civil penalties apply only where the engagement began on or after 1 October 2026.
For extended liability, the prescribed contractual requirements apply to relevant arrangements entered into on or after 1 October 2026.
Review the wider UK immigration changes alongside your business’ recruitment and supplier arrangements.
What About Contractors and Subcontractors?
In certain circumstances, liability for illegal working can extend beyond the business that directly contracts with the individual carrying out the work. Businesses operating through contracting chains should identify their role in those arrangements.
For example, a business may contract to provide services to a third party. It may then use another employer or subcontractor to provide the workers needed to fulfil that contract.
This does not mean every organisation purchasing services automatically becomes responsible for checking the supplier’s workforce. The Home Office distinguishes qualifying contractual chains from businesses simply purchasing services for their own operations.
What is Extended Liability?
Extended liability means potential civil penalty responsibility beyond the worker’s direct employer. Where these provisions apply, the employer with the direct contractual relationship remains responsible for carrying out the right-to-work check.
Another organisation further up the contractual chain may also need to take prescribed steps to establish its own statutory excuse.
The Home Office identifies contractual terms, substitution controls and identity verification as relevant requirements. Businesses cannot necessarily protect themselves simply by inserting a clause into a commercial agreement.
What Should Contracts Cover?
Where the extended liability rules apply, businesses may need written provisions requiring the relevant employer or service provider to:
- complete prescribed right to work checks;
- control further subcontracting;
- include equivalent right to work obligations where subcontracting is permitted;
- allow compliance audits;
- take appropriate action where illegal working is identified; and
- cooperate with a Home Office investigation.
Review both your contracts and the practical processes supporting them.
What About Substitution?
Some worker or contractor agreements allow the individual engaged to send another person to perform the work. This is called substitution.
Businesses within the expanded provisions should have procedures to ensure any substitute undergoes the required right-to-work check before starting work.
The Home Office guidance makes clear that responsibility for these checks should not simply be delegated to the individual choosing their substitute.
Why is Identity Verification Important?
A correctly completed check has limited value if somebody else subsequently performs the work. The Home Office therefore emphasises identity verification where there is a risk of substitution or impersonation.
Depending on the business model, appropriate measures could include workplace passes, attendance systems, biometric systems or facial recognition technology. Use proportionate processes to confirm the person performing the work is the person whose right to work was checked.
What are the Penalties for Getting Checks Wrong?
An employer may face a civil penalty if someone works illegally and the employer has not established a statutory excuse. The Home Office’s October 2026 code sets out the applicable penalties. The maximum civil penalty is £60,000 per illegal worker.
Knowingly employing someone illegally, or having reasonable cause to believe they lack the right to work, can result in criminal prosecution. The maximum prison sentence is five years. An unlimited fine can also apply.
Include right-to-work procedures in your wider sponsorship compliance checks, alongside applicable Skilled Worker salary requirements.
How Can Employers Avoid Discrimination?
Carry out right-to-work checks consistently. Do not make assumptions based on someone’s name, nationality, accent, appearance or other characteristics.
The Home Office recommends giving prospective workers a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate their right to work using an appropriate prescribed method.
Its October 2026 discrimination guidance confirms that employers must continue to meet their duties to avoid discrimination when conducting checks.
A consistent recruitment and onboarding procedure can help your business manage immigration compliance and discrimination risks. Train the people conducting checks to apply the process fairly.
How Should Businesses Review Their Procedures?
Review recruitment procedures alongside your contractor, subcontractor and platform arrangements. Identify contracts that permit substitution and review how you confirm the identity of the people attending work. Check that staff understand the process for approving a substitute before work begins.
Review how your business records checks and stores evidence. Make sure the person monitoring time-limited permission can identify the next required check.
Key Takeaways
Completing prescribed right-to-work checks before work begins can provide a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. Keep evidence and complete required follow-up checks. The follow-up exception includes settled and pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
The expanded rules cover certain workers, individual subcontractors and online matching arrangements from 1 October 2026. Engagement and contract start dates matter. Extended liability can affect qualifying contracting chains, but it does not automatically cover every business that buys services.
LegalVision provides ongoing legal support for businesses through our fixed-fee legal membership. Our experienced immigration lawyers help businesses manage contracts, employment law, disputes, intellectual property, and more, with unlimited access to specialist lawyers for a fixed monthly fee. To learn more about LegalVision’s legal membership, call 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I accept a screenshot of someone’s eVisa?
Use the employer-facing Home Office online service when the person must prove their right to work through that route. A screenshot from the worker’s account does not establish the statutory excuse. Obtain their right-to-work share code and date of birth.
What happens if an employee’s visa has expired but they have applied for an extension?
They may still have the right to work if they submitted a valid application before their permission expired. Verify their status through the appropriate Home Office online process or Employer Checking Service. Do not assume the expiry date alone means they must stop working.
Do I need to check contractors from 1 October 2026?
Potentially, because the expanded scheme covers certain workers, individual subcontractors and online matching arrangements. For these additional direct arrangements, civil penalties apply only to engagements beginning on or after that date. Review the contractual relationship and how it operates.
Can a business be responsible for workers employed by another company?
Extended liability can apply in certain contractual chains. It does not automatically apply whenever a business buys services from another organisation. Review the relevant contract dates and arrangements to establish whether your business falls within the provisions.
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