Extension of Right to Work Checks

Employers will be very familiar with conducting Right to Work Checks for their employees prior to employment commencing.  From 1 October 2026 however, the Right to Work obligations placed upon employers will extend to a much wider range of working arrangements including covering Contractors, Consultants and Agency Workers.  Consequently, Right to Work obligations will no longer be limited to traditional employees.  This is a very important change because such people, by definition, not being on the business payroll, could have the same immigration compliance risks as traditional employees.

The reality of the changes is that whilst the Right to Work obligations have rested largely with the HR function within a business, the changes will mean that this compliance aspect may become a broader workforce and supply chain risk.  The changes will mean that responsibility for conducting Right to Work checks will not stop primarily with the organisation that has directly contracted with the individual and therefore businesses with complicated workforce supply chains could find themselves being exposed, particularly with individuals with whom they do not have a direct employment relationship.

The Home Office already have many sanctions at their disposal including fining businesses up to £60,000.00 for a breach of the Illegal Working Regulations.  It is also not just a question of money. If a business is in receipt of a fine (Civil Penalty) then it is also likely to find itself included on the Home Office website in a dedicated section dealing with business which have been issued with Civil Penalties.  It is not unheard of for such businesses to also find themselves prone to adverse media attention and consequently reputational damage can be a very real and live issue.

We are already heading into September and the significant changes are only a month away.  It goes without saying that businesses which rely upon Contractors, Agency Workers, individual Sub-contractors and indeed other non-payroll workers should consider and review their contractual arrangements, ideally as soon as possible.

As a matter of good practice, particularly in view of the imminent changes, businesses would be well advised to conduct Right to Work checks against anyone working within the organisation and indeed on-site to ensure compliance with Right to Work obligations and hence reduce risk.  It may well be that HR systems will need to be updated and adapted to ensure that the processes capture the wider range of working arrangements which will become within scope under the new regulations.

For advice on this or any other immigration related matter, please do not hesitate to contact Sohan Sidhu at Sohan.Sidhu@ellisons.com 

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