New laws from the beginning of the month make it critical for companies that rely on subcontractors, agency staff or complex labour supply chains to review their compliance procedures to identify employees who do not have the right to work in the UK.
The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 came into force on 1st October 2026 and will extend Right to Work obligations. The new framework means that companies can no longer assume that ‘self-employed’ individuals or subcontracted employee arrangements sit outside the regime.
Employers can be sent to jail for five years and pay an unlimited fine if found guilty of employing people who the employer knew or had ‘reasonable cause to believe’ did not have the right to work in the UK.
To protect themselves, companies must have processes for verifying workers’ identities. If checks are conducted as prescribed by the Home Office in legislation and statutory codes of practice in force at the time the check was made, employers will have a statutory excuse against the liability of a civil penalty.
The Home Office points out that the ability to work without permission is a driver of illegal migration. This can expose individuals to exploitation and abuse, including modern slavery. It may also have an adverse impact on compliant employers and the wider labour market, including through unfair competition and breaches of employment and tax laws.
More information is available in the Home Office’s draft employer’s guide to right to work checks, which you can read here.
