Right to work changed on 1 October: Is your business ready?

Written by Emma-Louise Hewitt, partner and head of Employment Law at Sydney Mitchell LLP

For many businesses, the days of only running right to work checks on traditional employees are ending. If your organisation relies on flexible labour, the way you onboard people is about to become a compliance issue you cannot afford to ignore.

What has changed?

From 1 October 2026, UK businesses have wider responsibilities for checking that people carrying out work for them have the right to work in the UK.

The existing Right to Work Scheme requires employers to establish that a person is permitted to work in the UK before they start work, but from 1 October 2026, that obligation is extended to additional working arrangements under changes introduced by the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025.

So, crucially, the headline change is the widening of who must be checked. The Right to Work Checks changes extend the Right to Work Scheme beyond traditional employees to certain workers, individual subcontractors and online matching arrangements, to cover a much broader workforce, including gig economy workers, those on zero-hours arrangements, and individuals engaged as contractors or through casual arrangements.

In short, if someone is working for you, you will increasingly be expected to confirm they have the legal right to do so, regardless of the label on their contract.

For employers, this is more than an HR policy update. Businesses need to look beyond their payroll and understand who is actually carrying out work for them, how that person is engaged, and where responsibility for the Right to Work check sits.

The Home Office's latest employer guidance confirms that the expanded scheme covers people engaged:

• under a contract of employment;

• under a worker's contract;

• as an individual subcontractor; and

• through certain online matching services that provide details of individual service providers to clients or customers.

This means businesses that have traditionally viewed Right to Work as an employee-only issue need to rethink their approach.

What it means for employers and employees

The extension of the Right to Work Scheme represents a significant shift in how businesses should approach immigration compliance.

For employers, this means reviewing every category of worker, not just permanent staff. Businesses will need robust onboarding processes, consistent record-keeping, and staff who understand how to carry out compliant checks, whether in person, through the Home Office online service using a share code, or via a certified identity service provider.

For employees and workers, the change means being ready to evidence their status quickly, which can affect how fast businesses can bring people on board.

When must the check be completed?

The check must be completed before the individual starts work if the employer wants to establish a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. There are three prescribed routes:

1. A manual document-based Right to Work check;

2. A Home Office online Right to Work check; or

3. A check using an approved Right to Work digital verification service, where the relevant requirements are met.

Simply asking someone whether they have the right to work is not enough, nor is looking at an individual's immigration status through an immigration account or another Home Office service instead of using the prescribed employer checking process.

For online checks, employers should use the Home Office's employer-facing service.

How do online Right to Work checks work?

Where an individual can demonstrate their status online, the employer will generally need the individual's share code and date of birth to access the Home Office Right to Work service. The employer must then check the result carefully, including:

• Whether the person is permitted to work;

• Whether their permission is subject to an expiry date;

• Whether there are restrictions on the work they can undertake;

• Whether there are restrictions on working hours; and

• Whether the photograph corresponds with the individual presenting for work.

Where an individual's right to work is time-limited, employers must also diarise the required follow-up check.

Compliance obligations and the risks of getting it wrong

Carrying out a correct check before work begins gives an employer a “statutory excuse”, a legal defence if a worker later turns out not to have the right to work. Skip it, and the consequences are serious, particularly businesses that engage large, flexible workforces, the cumulative financial exposure can be significant.

Civil penalties can reach up to £60,000 per illegal worker, and in the most serious cases, employers face criminal liability, including imprisonment, unlimited fines, director disqualification, and reputational damage, as well as even business closure, loss of the ability to sponsor migrants, and potential licensing consequences in certain regulated sectors.

Getting your systems right now is far cheaper than dealing with enforcement later. Right to Work is becoming a workforce-governance issue, and perhaps the most important change is not the check itself, it is the fact that businesses need a much clearer understanding of who is working for them.

For years, many organisations have divided their workforce into simple categories: Employees | Contractors | Suppliers. The changes make that model less useful for Right to Work compliance, and businesses simply need to understand the reality behind those labels:

• Who personally performs the work?

• Who engages them?

• Who pays them?

• Can they send someone else?

• Are they operating an independent business?

• Is there an intermediary?

• Is a platform matching them with customers?

• Who has control over the work?

• Who is contractually responsible for checking their status?

Act now

The message for employers is simple: do not wait to act. Now is the time to audit your workforce, update onboarding procedures, and train the people responsible for checks. The best preparation is to move from an employee-checking mindset to a workforce-compliance mindset.

What employers should do now 

As the new Right to Work rules are now in force, employers should follow an immediate, practical, risk-based approach. To help, follow this summary checklist.

Ask:

• Have we identified everyone who personally performs work for us?

• Have we looked beyond employees?

• Have we assessed workers and individual subcontractors?

• Have we reviewed platform and intermediary arrangements?

• Have we checked whether any contracts allow substitutes?

• Do we know who is responsible for each check?

• Are checks completed before work begins?

• Do we know when to use the Home Office online service?

• Do we know when to use the Employer Checking Service?

• Are time-limited permissions diarised?

• Are our records complete and secure?

• Have we reviewed agency and subcontractor contracts?

• Have we considered extended liability in contractual chains?

• Have we trained everyone involved in recruitment and onboarding?

• Are our procedures consistent and non-discriminatory?

Important notes

• This article reflects the latest Home Office guidance and codes available as at 17 September 2026.

• The Home Office states that the updated employer guidance will come into force on 1 October 2026.

• Businesses should review the final GOV.UK guidance and their individual working arrangements before implementing changes, particularly where they use complex subcontracting, agency, platform or self-employed models.

• This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice.

Sydney Mitchell LLP has offices in Birmingham and Solihull. The firm has built a reputation as one of the Midlands' leading independent law firms, advising businesses, organisations and private individuals across a broad range of legal disciplines. Founded over 260 years ago, the firm combines specialist legal expertise with a personal, relationship-led approach that has underpinned its success. Sydney Mitchell is Lexcel accredited and seven-time winner of Birmingham Law Society Firm of the Year (5–15 partners)