Update Details: The recruitment, illegal working, labour standards and contractors policies have been updated so that right to work checks cover workers and individual contractors as well as employees, with written arrangements for agency and sub-contracted people.
From 1 October 2026 the duty to check someone's right to work in the UK no longer stops at employees. Casual, temporary and zero-hours workers, individual contractors and people found through online matching platforms are brought into scope, and what counts is how the work is actually arranged rather than what the arrangement is called. Responsibility can also reach businesses further up a supply chain that did not engage the person directly, so the contracts with agencies and sub-contractors matter as much as the checks a business carries out itself.
A correct check made before work starts is still what protects a business against a penalty. The right to work sections of the four policies below now apply that check to everyone the law requires it for, however they are engaged.
Right to Work Checks in the Updated Policies
- Everyone checked before they start - employees, casual, temporary and zero-hours workers, and individual contractors
- The same check for everyone - carried out the same way whatever the person's nationality
- Follow-up checks - where permission to work is time-limited
- Agency and sub-contracted people - who carries out the check is agreed in writing, and evidence that it was done is asked for
- Records - the checks for each appointment recorded, with copies kept for the length of the engagement plus two years
- Evidence at offer stage - the evidence asked for when an offer is made covers what the checks need, without recording nationality
Right to Work Policies Updated:
| P-60 Recruitment Selection Policy | The employment checks section now covers everyone taken on, checked before they start whatever their nationality, with written arrangements for agency and sub-contracted people. Both versions updated, including the version with criminal background checks |
| P-82 Preventing Illegal Working Policy | Checks for employees, workers and individual contractors before they start, follow-up checks, controls for agency and sub-contracted people, and copies kept for the engagement plus two years. Both versions updated, including V2, which lists the applicable legislation |
| P-45 Labour Standards Policy | Right to work checks extended to other workers and contractors where the law requires them |
| P-50 Contractors Policy | Right to work checks for individual contractors |
Further guidance on how to carry out a right to work check is available in our knowledge base;
Right to Work Checks
Legal and Compliance Obligations for UK Businesses
