Right to Work Checks: Are You Ready for 1 October 2026?

From 1 October 2026, proposed changes to the Right to Work regime are expected to widen the circumstances in which checks are required.

The Home Office guidance is still in draft, so there may be changes before 1 October. However, there is enough detail in the proposals for businesses to review their arrangements now.

Who will the new rules apply to?

Right to Work checks are currently most commonly associated with employees.

That is set to change. The proposed regime goes beyond the traditional employer and employee relationship and brings a wider range of workers and service arrangements into scope.

This includes:

• Individuals employed by the company under a contract of employment, including apprenticeships;
• Individuals providing services under a ‘worker’s contract’, where they undertake to perform work or services personally and the company is not their client or customer;
• Individuals engaged to personally perform services under a sub-contract; and
• Certain online platforms which connect individuals offering services with clients and charge a fee or commission for doing so.

It is important to remember that the name given to the relationship will not necessarily determine whether the rules apply. For example, calling someone a consultant, freelancer or self-employed contractor does not, by itself, take the arrangement outside the regime.

Businesses will therefore need to consider what the arrangement actually looks like in practice, rather than relying solely on the wording of the contract.

Extended liability: don’t forget your contractors and subcontractors

For businesses with a straightforward employee workforce, these changes may be relatively simple to deal with. It is more complicated, however, where individuals are supplied through agencies, subcontractors or other supply arrangements.

The draft guidance introduces the concept of extended liability. The Home Office will continue to look to the direct employer first. However, responsibility may move further up the contractual chain where the direct employer cannot be identified, or the relevant compliance requirements have not been met.

This does not mean that a business automatically becomes liable for illegal working elsewhere in its supply chain. It does mean, however, that businesses should understand who is carrying out work on their behalf, how those individuals are engaged and where responsibility for Right to Work checks sits.

Contracts with agencies, subcontractors and other suppliers should therefore be reviewed. They should make clear who is responsible for the checks and include appropriate protections around compliance.

The expanded liability provisions are expected to apply to relevant employment or engagement arrangements beginning on or after 1 October 2026. There is no suggestion in the draft guidance that every existing contract needs to be amended simply because the new rules are coming into force. However, existing arrangements should be reviewed where it is not clear who is responsible for Right to Work compliance or where the current controls are not sufficient.

What should your contracts say?

A clause saying that Right to Work checks will be carried out is unlikely to be enough on its own.

Businesses should consider whether their contracts deal with:

• checks being completed before work starts;
• restrictions on further subcontracting;
• the right to request evidence or carry out audits;
• co-operation with a Home Office investigations; and
• notification of any compliance issues.

The purpose is to make sure there is no uncertainty about who is responsible for the checks and what happens if something goes wrong.

Substitution rights need particular attention

This is an area that businesses should look at carefully.

Many contractor agreements allow the individual to provide a substitute. That may be entirely legitimate and, in fact, helpful from a worker status perspective, but it creates another Right to Work issue.

If the person who originally passed the Right to Work check is replaced, the business needs to know about the change and make sure the substitute has the Right to Work before they start providing services. The original contractor cannot simply be left to deal with this themselves.

The contract should deal with how a substitution is notified and approved, and the business should have a process for checking the substitute before they start work.

It is worth asking:

• How will the business know that a substitute is being provided?
• Who will check the substitute’s identity?
• Who will carry out the Right to Work check?
• Does the substitute need approval before attending the workplace or accessing systems?
• Is there a record showing that the check was completed before the substitute started?

This is particularly important in sectors where substitution is common.

The person named in the contract may not always be the person actually doing the work. The business needs to know who is carrying out the work and make sure the appropriate checks have been completed.

A check at the start may not be enough

The draft guidance also considers how businesses can satisfy themselves that the person who passed the Right to Work check is the person actually doing the work.

It refers to measures such as workplace ID cards, attendance systems, facial verification and periodic identity checks.

That does not mean every business will need to introduce facial recognition. The point is that businesses should consider what happens after the initial check, particularly where there are large workforces, contractors or other arrangements where the person carrying out the work may change.

Businesses using a digital verification service should also remember that outsourcing the process does not transfer responsibility for compliance. The business remains responsible for ensuring the checks have been carried out correctly and that the required records are kept. The relevant provider should also be registered and the required steps completed.

What should businesses do now?

Now that October is nearly here, we would suggest considering the following:

Who is actually working for the business?

Look beyond the employee population. Include contractors, workers, agency staff, subcontractors and others providing services.

How are they engaged?

Look at the actual arrangement, rather than simply relying on the title of the contract.

Who is responsible for the check?

This should be clear, particularly where another organisation is supplying the individual.

Can the business demonstrate what it has done?

Check the contracts, records and internal processes. If the business was asked to demonstrate compliance, could it do so?

Do the people responsible for Right to Work checks understand the changes?

Make sure HR and anyone else involved in checking workers or managing contractors understands what is changing and what they need to do differently.

The guidance is still in draft and may change before 1 October 2026. But businesses can start reviewing their arrangements now and identify where contracts, processes or responsibilities may need to be tightened up.

If it is not clear whether a particular contractor, subcontractor or service arrangement will fall within the new regime, it is worth getting in touch with us and taking advice before the changes come into force.