Right to Work Checks are about to change: is your business ready for the new rules coming on 1 October 2026?

From 1 October 2026, the UK's right to work regime is set to undergo one of its most significant expansions since its introduction.

Historically, many businesses have viewed right to work compliance through a relatively straightforward lens: if they employ someone directly, they conduct a right to work check. If they do not employ them, the issue is usually someone else's problem. From October 2026, that assumption may no longer be reliable.

The Home Office's new right to work framework expands the regime beyond traditional employment relationships and introduces the concept of "extended liability" in a range of modern working arrangements. The changes potentially affect businesses engaging workers under worker contracts, using individual subcontractors, subcontracting services, or facilitating work through online matching platforms.

For businesses that get this wrong, the consequences can be severe. Civil penalties can be as high as £60,000 per illegal worker, with additional sponsor licence, regulatory and reputational implications in many cases.

The changes are not yet widely understood, but many organisations should now be reviewing their contractual arrangements and labour supply models.

The right to work regime requires employers to take prescribed steps to verify an individual's immigration status before they commence work.

A compliant right to work check can provide protection against liability for a civil penalty if a worker is subsequently found to be working illegally. Failure to comply can expose a business to substantial civil penalties and, in the most serious cases, criminal sanctions. Sponsor licence holders also face additional risks if compliance failures are identified.

Most businesses are already familiar with these principles.

What is changing is the range of individuals and organisations that may now fall within the regime.

The new regime is no longer confined to traditional employees working under contracts of employment. Instead, it extends to a broader range of working arrangements, including but not limited to:

• individuals engaged under worker contracts

• individual subcontractors

• certain online matching services and platforms

• subcontracting arrangements

Many businesses will immediately recognise that these concepts overlap with modern working practices that have become increasingly common across sectors such as financial services, technology, logistics, facilities management, hospitality, construction and the gig economy.

However, the practical boundaries of the new rules remain largely untested.

Perhaps the most significant development is the introduction of "extended liability".

The Home Office's stated approach is that it will first seek to identify the employer with the direct contractual relationship with the worker. However, the new provisions operate as a mechanism for extending responsibility where the direct employer cannot be identified, or where those further up the contractual chain have failed to implement certain safeguards.

In practical terms, this means that organisations may no longer be able to assume that immigration compliance risk sits solely with the person whose name appears on the worker's contract.

In effect, the Home Office will have greater scope to examine how labour is supplied, who ultimately benefits from that labour and whether appropriate compliance controls exist throughout the contractual chain.

The answer is not yet entirely clear.

Although the legislation and draft code are now available, many questions remain unanswered. Much will depend on how the provisions are ultimately interpreted and enforced in practice.

Businesses should also pay close attention to the Home Office's emphasis on contractual controls to protect themselves from a subcontractor’s lack of immigration compliance.

The Home Office’s new guidance contemplates a range of safeguards, including:

• contractual right to work obligations;

• restrictions on further subcontracting;

• audit rights;

• cooperation requirements;

• substitution controls; and

• identity verification procedures.

Whether those arrangements will ultimately be sufficient will depend on the facts of each case.

What is already clear, however, is that immigration compliance is increasingly becoming a supply-chain issue rather than solely an HR issue.

Organisations should consider:

• mapping labour supply chains and contractor arrangements;

• reviewing subcontractor and platform agreements;

• assessing existing right to work compliance processes;

• considering whether additional audit and reporting provisions are required; and

• identifying areas where responsibility for immigration compliance may be unclear.

With implementation scheduled for 1 October 2026, early preparation may help businesses reduce compliance risk and avoid disruption when the new regime takes effect.

Harry Qiu Yu Yu is an associate in the immigration law team and advises representing private clients on complex immigration matters, spanning the full range of private client and corporate immigration law.