Significant changes to the UK’s Right to Work (RTW) regime are due to go live later this year which will affect all organisations, not just sponsors of skilled migrant workers.
What is the current Right to Work regime in the UK and who does it apply to?
Employers have a legal duty to prevent illegal working by ensuring that those they employ have the requisite RTW in the UK. An employer who does not carry out compliant RTW checks before employing someone whose immigration status does not entitle them to undertake the work in question, may be liable for a civil penalty alongside other consequences. Employers who knowingly employ someone without the correct immigration status may also be committing a criminal offence, which can lead to penalties of time in prison and unlimited fines.
Currently employers must conduct Right to work checks on all employees, regardless of nationality, before they start work. They must also conduct repeat Right to Work checks in some instances (e.g. where a person has a limited period of immigration leave or is granted a new visa in a different category).
Upcoming changes to the Right to Work regime for all employers
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, specifically, section 48, was passed on 2 December 2025. This new legislation will be implemented at some point later this year and will significantly change the remit of the RTW regime in the UK. This section extends the mandatory RTW checks to individuals who are not employees, but also to other working arrangements. This will include people who are covered under a contract for service, sub-contractors, consultants and workers from online recruitment platforms. Section 48 will come into effect on a date set out in future regulations, with a new RTW guidance note published at the same time.
On 15 April 2026 the Government published a draft Code of Practice for employers on avoiding unlawful discrimination whilst preventing illegal working. The draft Code states that it will apply “to all employment commencing on or after 1 October 2026” and where a repeat check is required on or after this date.
Interestingly, the draft Code also provides updated definitions of ‘employer’ and ‘worker’ for the purposes of the proposed new right to work Codes of Practice. It is consistent with Section 48 of The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 in that it defines the two terms as follows:
‘Employer’ means a person who employs an individual:
- under a contract of employment (a contract of service or apprenticeship)
- under a worker’s contract
- as an individual sub-contractor, or
- an online matching service providing the details of an individual who is a service provider to potential clients or customers.
It also defines ‘Worker’ to mean an individual employed by an employer in any of the above working arrangements.
Although the government have not yet officially confirmed that this is the case, there is now speculation that the changes to the right to work regime will ‘go live’ on 1 October 2026. All organisations across the UK must therefore prepare in advance for these significant changes, given that the penalties imposed on employers for illegal working will be extended beyond employees and apply to the wider categories of the workforce outlined above.
Update to guidance for sponsor licence holders
On 6 March 2026 and 8 April 2026 respectively, the Home Office published updates to its guidance for Home Office approved sponsors to include new duties around Right to Work checks. These changes extend the duty to conduct Right to Work checks beyond sponsored workers, to anyone ‘directly engaged’ by the sponsor and therefore the above changes have seemingly already been implemented for sponsors.
Whilst some elements of the new guidance are contradictory, there is a clear indication that the Home Office expects sponsors to be conducting Right to Work checks more widely than before. For example, paragraph S1.40 of Part 2 of the Sponsor Guidance explicitly states who must be checked before starting work:
‘You must check that any worker you wish to sponsor (including a worker who is not your direct employee), or any worker you otherwise wish to employ or directly engage, has permission to enter or stay in the UK and can do the work in question before they start working for you. This applies even if the worker is, or appears to be, a British citizen or other settled worker.’
This suggests there is a positive duty on sponsors to conduct pre-work checks on all workers, meaning all employees (sponsored or otherwise) and anyone who is “directly engaged” by the company. Unhelpfully, “directly engaged” is not yet defined in this context. The Guidance makes it clear that failure to comply with this duty will normally result in a sponsor’s licence being revoked. Given the uncertainty around these updates and the lack of definitions, immigration practitioners have sought further clarity from the Home Office on this, which may well come in the form of further updates to the sponsor guidance – watch this space!
What do employers need to do going forward?
To adopt a cautious approach, we would advise all sponsors to check their current right to work processes and extend them urgently to anyone who could be defined as being ‘directly engaged’ by them and retain evidence of this. This includes sponsored and non-sponsored individuals.
In due course all businesses are likely to be affected by these changes and not just sponsors. It is therefore important that management and leadership teams are aware of these changes and the repercussions of not getting this right. For HR teams, it will mean an increase to workloads, and it will require careful monitoring to ensure compliance. We recommend doing impact assessments to see how this work will be picked up and integrated into your current systems, as well as conducting an audit of all workers to identify those who may be affected. Further, we suggest all businesses conduct a review of contracts for the supply of services or consultancy agreements and include clauses allocating responsibility for carrying out Right to Work checks, requiring evidence of compliance and indemnities if any issues subsequently come to light.
If your company has any queries related to Right to Work checks, sponsor licence duties or compliance, our team would be happy to assist. We regularly provide training for organisations on carrying out compliant right to work checks and, in the case of sponsors, maintaining compliance with their sponsor duties. Our Immigration team can be contacted at [email protected].