Right to Work checks are changing from 1 October

If your business uses agency staff, individual subcontractors or other flexible workers, it’s time to check who is responsible for their Right to Work checks.

Right to Work checks are already a familiar part of hiring employees. The employer checks that someone is allowed to do the job before they start and keeps a record of the check.

From 1 October 2026, the scheme is due to cover more working arrangements, including people engaged under a worker’s contract, individual subcontractors and some workers finding jobs through online matching services. For businesses using flexible labour, the first step is to understand who engages each person and who carries out their check.

What is changing?

The expanded rules are particularly relevant to sectors that rely on temporary labour and subcontracting, including construction, industrial operations and facilities management.

The label used for a worker does not settle the question. Calling someone “self-employed” does not, by itself, put them outside the rules. Equally, buying a service from another business does not automatically make you responsible for checking everyone that business employs. The contract and the way the work is delivered matter.

Under the Home Office’s draft employer guidance, the expanded civil penalty rules apply to relevant working arrangements starting on or after 1 October 2026. The guidance is still in draft, so businesses should check the final version when it is published.

If we use agency workers, who checks them?

The business that directly engages the worker is responsible for their Right to Work check.

The Home Office draft gives the example of a manufacturer using temporary production workers supplied by an employment business. The employment business engages the workers and is responsible for checking them. The manufacturer does not take on that responsibility simply because the workers are working at its factory.

There is a distinction where a business has agreed to deliver work or services for a client, then contracts with another business to provide people to carry out that work. In those circumstances, civil penalty liability may extend further up the contractual chain. The draft guidance uses a construction project involving subcontracted work as an example.

That does not mean every client becomes responsible for its supplier’s checks. For example, the draft says that a retailer buying cleaning services for its own premises is outside those extended liability provisions. The cleaning company remains responsible for the cleaners it employs.

What if a worker sends someone else in their place?

A contract allowing a worker to send a substitute needs particular attention. The draft guidance says arrangements should ensure that any substitute has the appropriate Right to Work check before they begin. The worker cannot simply confirm that the person they send is eligible to work.

Businesses should also know who is actually turning up to do the work. A check on one person is of little use if someone else carries out the assignment.

Do all checks have to be digital?

No. Depending on the person’s documents or immigration status, the appropriate route may be an original document check, the Home Office online service or a registered Right to Work digital verification service provider. Some cases require the Home Office Employer Checking Service.

A digital provider must be registered to offer Right to Work checks, and using one does not transfer responsibility away from the business required to make the check. Whichever route applies, allow enough time to complete it before the person starts.

What happens if the rules are broken?

The maximum civil penalties are already £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach. Those amounts are not increasing in October. The change is that more working arrangements can come within the Right to Work scheme.

Carrying out a check in the prescribed way can establish a statutory excuse against a civil penalty if the person is later found to be working illegally. Where the extended liability rules apply, the draft guidance also sets out requirements for contractual terms, substitution controls and identity verification. A clause in a contract alone may not be enough: businesses need evidence that their arrangements work in practice.

What should you check now?

Map how you use flexible labour. Include agency staff, individual subcontractors, online matching services and contracts that allow substitutes.
Confirm who engages each worker. Identify who must complete and keep evidence of the Right to Work check.
Look at work you deliver through subcontractors. If your business is contracted to deliver a service to someone else, check whether the extended liability provisions could apply.
Review your contracts and records. Where extended liability may apply, the draft guidance describes written terms covering checks, further subcontracting, audit rights and cooperation with Home Office investigations.
Plan for substitutes. Make sure the person who actually carries out the work is identified and checked before they start.
Track follow-up checks. Some workers have time-limited permission to work and will need another check.
Apply checks consistently. Do not make assumptions about someone’s right to work based on their name, nationality or appearance.

How Thorn Baker can help

The changes are a good reason to take a closer look at how flexible labour moves through your business. Who engages each worker? What happens when someone is needed at short notice? And do the people arranging cover know what information is needed before a worker starts?

Thorn Baker can offer a free review of your agency labour arrangements with your consultant or brand head. We can talk through how you currently request and onboard workers, identify where responsibilities or handovers may be unclear, and suggest practical actions to help avoid delays.

That conversation could include:

Reviewing how worker details are shared before an assignment starts.
Looking at the process for last-minute cover or a change in the person arriving on site.
Clarifying who to contact, and when, if you have a question about a worker’s onboarding.
Identifying where clearer processes could make it easier to plan staffing across your sites or shifts.

With penalties of up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach, it’s too costly to leave responsibilities unclear.

Would it be useful to talk through your current arrangements? Get in touch with your Thorn Baker consultant or brand head and ask for a free agency labour review. Tell us where the process feels unclear or causes delays, and we’ll start there.

This article is based on the Home Office’s draft Employer’s guide to Right to Work checks, available at the time of writing in September 2026. The guidance may change before the new rules take effect on 1 October 2026. This article provides general information, not legal advice. Please check the final Home Office guidance and seek professional advice about your specific working arrangements where needed.