What the 2026 Right to Work Check Update Means for Sponsor Licence Holders

Right to work checks sit at the heart of every UK employer’s legal duty to prevent illegal working. The Home Office has published an updated draft of its right to work check guidance. The Employer’s guide to right to work checks is dated 11 September 2026. It supersedes an earlier draft published on 16 July 2026 and will replace the current guidance, issued on 26 June 2025, when it takes effect on 1 October 2026.

For employers that hold a sponsor licence this is a lot more than a minor administrative refresh. It gives effect to significant changes made by the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. It also extends civil penalty liability well beyond the traditional employment relationship and updates the technical detail behind the Home Office’s online checking service and digital identity verification.

For a sponsor licence holder, getting them wrong carries a second layer of risk. The guidance lists an inability to sponsor migrants as one of the sanctions for employing an illegal worker.

This guide explains what the 2026 update covers and what sponsor licence holders need to do to stay compliant from 1 October 2026.

What Is the Employer’s Guide to Right to Work Checks?

The Employer’s guide to right to work checks is the Home Office’s primary guidance document. It explains how UK employers can establish a “statutory excuse” against liability for a civil penalty when they employ someone who turns out to be disqualified from working because of their immigration status.

It is issued alongside two related codes of practice.

• Code of practice on preventing illegal working (Right to Work Scheme for employers)
• Code of practice for employers (avoiding unlawful discrimination while preventing illegal working)

A revised version of the Code of practice on preventing illegal working, published in draft on 30 June 2026, also comes into force on 1 October 2026.

The legal basis for the scheme sits in sections 15 to 25 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (IANA 2006), section 24B of the Immigration Act 1971, and Schedule 6 of the Immigration Act 2016. An employer who carries out right to work checks before employment begins, and repeats the check where required, establishes a statutory excuse. In practice, this means the employer will not be liable for a civil penalty even if the individual is later found to be working illegally.

The 11 September 2026 draft takes effect on 1 October 2026. The Home Office’s own summary of changes says this version adds clarity on when working arrangements fall within scope of the scheme. It also clarifies key terms, confirms that checks may be delegated across all three check methods, and includes revised worked examples.

Why This Update Matters for Sponsor Licence Holders

Sponsor licence holders already carry compliance obligations that go beyond those of a typical UK employer. A sponsor must check and retain evidence of a sponsored worker’s immigration status. This is one of its sponsor duties, and it applies whether or not the working arrangement itself falls within the Right to Work Scheme. Where a right to work check is also required, sponsors must make sure it is carried out to the prescribed standard so that a statutory excuse is established.

The consequences of getting this wrong are more severe for a sponsor licence holder than for other employers. The guidance confirms a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker. The exact amount is worked out case by case. The linked Code of Practice on preventing illegal working, a separate document from the Employer’s guide, currently sets a starting point of £45,000 per worker for a first breach, rising to £60,000 per worker for a repeat breach within three years. The revised Code taking effect on 1 October 2026 keeps these amounts. See Sanctions below for the full picture.

The guidance also states that receiving a civil penalty could affect an employer’s ability to sponsor migrant workers in future. Where the employer is an individual who is themselves subject to immigration control, the penalty is also recorded on Home Office systems and may be taken into account in their own future immigration applications.

For any organisation that relies on a sponsor licence to recruit from overseas, this update is essential reading, not optional background.

The Legal Framework Behind the 2026 Right to Work Check Update

The main driver of this update is the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (BSAI 2025). Section 48 of the BSAI 2025 amends the IANA 2006 in two ways.

First, it inserts a new section 14A into the IANA 2006. This widens the definition of “employer” for right to work purposes. Previously, civil penalty liability applied only to those employing a worker under a traditional contract of employment. From 1 October 2026, the definition of “employer” also extends to a person who engages an individual under a worker’s contract, engages an individual as a subcontractor, or operates an online matching service that supplies an individual service provider’s details to potential clients or customers.

Second, it inserts a new section 15A into the IANA 2006, which the guidance calls “extended liability.” Under section 15A, civil penalty liability can extend beyond the employer who has the direct contractual relationship with the worker to another party higher up a contractual chain. This is covered in full below.

Commencement dates matter here. Civil penalty liability for traditional contracts of employment continues to apply, as before, to employment that commenced on or after 29 February 2008. Where the arrangement instead involves a worker’s contract, an individual subcontractor, or an online matching service, a civil penalty can apply only if that arrangement began on or after 1 October 2026. The contractual requirements for establishing a statutory excuse against extended liability apply only to contracts signed on or after that same date.

The Three Prescribed Methods of Conducting a Right to Work Check

There are three prescribed methods for conducting a right to work check. An employer must complete one of the following before a worker starts employment.

A Manual Document-Based Right to Work Check

This involves obtaining an original document from List A or List B of Annex A to the guidance, the Home Office’s lists of documents acceptable for proving a right to work. The employer must check that the document is genuine and belongs to the holder. The employer must also check that the photograph and date of birth match the individual’s appearance and confirm any work restrictions. The employer must also record the date the check was made, either as a dated declaration on the copy or in a separate record.

The check must happen in the physical presence of the document holder, either in person or by live video link. On a video link, the employer must be holding the original document at the time. Employers must not rely on a screenshot or scanned copy of an identity document. The only exception is official evidence of a National Insurance number, presented digitally alongside an acceptable document.

A Home Office Online Right to Work Check

Where an individual holds an eVisa, this is the only way employers can establish a statutory excuse. A manual check of an expired Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) is not an acceptable route. BRPs stopped being issued on 31 October 2024, and immigration status is now recorded digitally through the eVisa system instead.

Individuals generate a share code through the Home Office’s online service by selecting the option to prove their right to work to an employer. The share code is nine characters long and must begin with the letter “W.” Employers cannot accept or use share codes beginning with “R” or “S,” since these belong to other services. A share code stays valid for 90 calendar days after issue. It can be reused as many times as needed within that window, but only for the purpose it was originally generated for.

To complete the check, the employer enters the share code and the individual’s date of birth on the Check a job applicant’s right to work service. The employer’s own business name should be entered accurately, since accurate recording supports the integrity of the check. The employer then confirms that the photograph shown matches the individual presenting for work, and retains a PDF or HTML copy of the resulting profile page for the duration of employment plus two years.

A Right to Work Check Using a Right to Work Digital Verification Service Provider (RtW DVSP)

Digital identity verification through a certified RtW DVSP remains optional, but the 2026 guidance confirms its scope. Any provider used must be registered on the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA) register. It must also comply with the UK digital verification services trust framework and its supplementary codes for digital right to work checks.

A registered RtW DVSP can verify holders of valid British or Irish passports and Irish passport cards, including passports up to six months past their expiry date, and, where a passport is presented after expiry, can verify its chip using passive authentication. It can also carry out facial recognition checks to confirm a worker’s identity. Employers must keep a secure copy of that facial comparison together with the document checked.

Declining a digital check must never count against a worker. Employers need to offer a manual document-based check instead.

Whichever method is used, responsibility for the check stays with the employer. The check can be delegated to staff acting on the employer’s behalf, but the employer remains liable for a civil penalty if the check was not carried out as prescribed.

Extended Liability Is the Headline Change for Contractual Supply Chains

Extended liability is the most significant change in this update for sponsor licence holders in sectors that rely on chains of subcontracting, such as construction, logistics and warehousing. It matters just as much for those operating through online matching services, or through contracts that permit substitution, such as gig-economy and platform-based models.

Under section 15A of the IANA 2006, liability for a civil penalty can extend to a party who does not directly employ the worker. This happens in three situations.

• A person is contracted to provide work or services to a third party and enters into a contract with another employer who provides workers to fulfil that contract. A main contractor engaging subcontractors on a construction site to complete parts of the build is a good example.
• An online matching service matches a service provider with a client or customer, and that service provider then contracts directly with the client or customer.
• An employer engages an individual under a contract that permits that individual to substitute their work to another person.

Extended liability is not triggered simply because a business buys services from someone else, and it is not triggered because a business obtains workers from a staffing agency for its own internal operations. A retailer that pays a facilities company to clean its stores, or a factory that takes on agency staff for its own production line, both sit outside scope for this reason. In each case, the business is buying a defined service or some extra labour for its own use rather than passing that work on to a third party as part of a chain. Responsibility for the right to work check stays with the facilities company or the staffing agency, as the worker’s direct employer.

By contrast, a business that is itself contracted to deliver work or services to a third party is likely to fall within scope if it then outsources delivery of that work through its own chain of subcontractors. Sponsor licence holders should map their own supply chains carefully against the guidance’s own examples. What matters is the substance of an arrangement, not the label the parties give it.

Establishing a Statutory Excuse Against Extended Liability

Where extended liability applies, a person higher up the contractual chain can establish a statutory excuse by meeting the prescribed requirements that apply to their arrangement before the work commences. These requirements apply to contracts entered into on or after 1 October 2026.

Contractual terms and conditions

A written statement must require the employer or service provider further down the chain to do the following.

• Carry out prescribed right to work checks
• Obtain prior written consent before further subcontracting, and replicate equivalent right to work obligations in any permitted subcontract
• Allow audits of its compliance
• Accept enforcement action, such as suspension or termination, where illegal working is found, with equivalent provisions in its own contract with the individual doing the work
• Co-operate with any Home Office investigation
• The guidance is clear that contractual terms alone are not enough. The person relying on the statutory excuse should be able to show the arrangements are operating effectively in practice, for example through audit records and compliance reviews.

Substitution controls

Where a contract permits substitution, the engaging party must make sure a right to work check is carried out on any substitute before that person starts work. This responsibility cannot be handed to the individual actually doing the work. Identity checks must confirm that the worker and any registered substitute are the same people whose right to work has been verified throughout the engagement.

Identity verification

Proportionate systems must confirm that the person actually doing the work is the same person whose right to work was checked. The guidance suggests measures such as identity cards, workplace passes, facial recognition technology through a registered RtW DVSP, biometric attendance systems, or re-verification at set intervals. As a benchmark, it recommends re-checking identity at least once every 24 hours, or once per shift.

Sponsor licence holders at the top of a labour supply chain should treat this as a prompt to act now. A main contractor on a construction project and a logistics company outsourcing warehouse operations to a third party are both good examples. They should review supplier contracts, audit arrangements and identity verification processes ahead of 1 October 2026.

Sponsor-Specific Duties Under the Updated Guidance

Annex B of the updated guidance covers specific categories of workers, including a section on sponsored work routes. It confirms that sponsor duties sit alongside, and separately from, the statutory right to work check regime. A sponsor must check and retain evidence of a sponsored worker’s immigration status regardless of whether the working arrangement falls within scope of the right to work scheme itself. Where it does fall within scope, the sponsor must also carry out a prescribed right to work check to establish a statutory excuse.

The guidance also sets out detailed rules on supplementary employment for sponsored workers. These are directly relevant to any sponsor whose workers ask about taking on a second job.

A Skilled Worker first granted permission as a Skilled Worker under the Immigration Rules in place from 22 July 2025 can take on supplementary employment only on one of three bases.

• The same profession and the same professional level as their sponsored role
• An occupation listed in the relevant RQF 6 tables of Appendix Skilled Occupations
• A role on the Immigration Salary List

Some Skilled Workers have wider options. Anyone first granted permission as a Skilled Worker before 22 July 2025 can also rely on the wider list of RQF 3 to 5 occupations previously listed in Appendix Skilled Occupations. This wider option carries over even where the worker has since moved to the post-2025 rules, provided their permission as a Skilled Worker has been continuous throughout.

Workers sponsored under several other routes face tighter restrictions.

• Global Business Mobility, Senior or Specialist Worker (limited to those granted permission before 11 April 2022, with continuous permission in that route since)
• T2 Minister of Religion
• International Sportsperson
• Creative Worker
• Religious Worker
• International Agreement
• Government Authorised Exchanges

Workers on these routes can generally take supplementary work only on the Immigration Salary List, or in the same profession and level as their sponsored role.

Unless an exception applies under the sponsor guidance, supplementary employment is only allowed while the worker continues to work for their sponsor. In every case, it must not exceed 20 hours a week in total, whether for one employer or several, and it cannot take place during the worker’s contracted hours for their sponsored job.

• Supplementary employment is only allowed while the sponsored worker continues to work for their sponsor.
• It must not exceed 20 hours a week in total, and it cannot take place during the sponsored worker’s contracted hours.
• Employers can evidence this by, for example, asking the worker for a letter from their sponsor confirming that they still work for the sponsor, their contracted hours and, for routes other than Skilled Worker where the second job is not on the Immigration Salary List, the job description and occupation code of the sponsored role.

When to Contact the Employer Checking Service (ECS)

Where a worker cannot demonstrate their right to work through a document, an online check or an RtW DVSP, employers must contact the Home Office’s Employer Checking Service (ECS) in specific circumstances. These include cases where an individual presents any of the following. This list is illustrative rather than exhaustive.

• A non-digital Certificate of Application for the EU Settlement Scheme
• An Application Registration Card as an asylum seeker
• Evidence of an outstanding application, appeal or administrative review
• Immigration status issued in a Crown Dependency
• Evidence that they are a long-term resident who arrived in the UK before 1988

The ECS aims to respond within five working days of a valid request. Where it issues a Positive Verification Notice (PVN), the employer gets a statutory excuse for six months from the date on the notice, and a follow-up check must be carried out before those six months are up to keep the excuse. A Negative Verification Notice (NVN) means the employer will have no statutory excuse if it continues to employ the individual regardless.

Follow-Up Checks and Record-Keeping

If an employer wants to keep employing a worker with time-limited permission to work, it must carry out a follow-up right to work check on or before the date that permission expires. No follow-up check is needed once an individual holds settled status in the UK, or pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, since both give a continuous statutory excuse.

Sometimes a worker cannot immediately show continued permission at a follow-up check, for example because an in-time application, appeal or administrative review is pending. In that situation, the guidance gives a grace period of 28 calendar days from the expiry of the previous permission. During this window, the employer can obtain a PVN from the ECS or complete a Home Office online check. This grace period does not apply before employment starts.

A separate 60-calendar-day grace period applies to TUPE transfers, giving the acquiring employer time to carry out a fresh check on transferred staff. There is no equivalent grace period for any later follow-up check.

Across all three check methods, employers must retain copies of the documents, online check outputs or RtW DVSP evidence securely, in a format that cannot be manually altered. These records must be kept for the duration of the individual’s employment and for two years afterwards, then securely destroyed.

Sanctions for Getting It Wrong

Where an employer is found to be employing someone illegally without a statutory excuse, the guidance sets out several sanctions. These start with a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, calculated case by case under the linked Code of Practice on preventing illegal working. That Code sets a starting point of £45,000 per worker for a first breach, rising to £60,000 per worker for a repeat breach within three years. In more serious cases, this can extend to a criminal conviction under section 21 of the IANA 2006, carrying up to five years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

Other consequences can also follow.

• Closure of the business and a compliance order issued by the court
• Disqualification as a company director
• Inability to sponsor migrant workers
• Seizure of earnings derived from illegal working
• Review or revocation of a licence in the alcohol, late-night refreshment, private hire vehicle or taxi sectors

Employers found liable may also be named in the Home Office’s published list of employers issued with illegal working penalties.

For sponsor licence holders, a civil penalty carries an added risk to future sponsorship capability. This makes rigorous, prescribed right to work checks a genuine business priority, not a purely administrative task. Where extended liability applies, robust compliance across the supply chain matters just as much.

Key Dates for the 2026 Right to Work Check Update

• 29 February 2008. Civil penalty liability under section 15 of the IANA 2006 continues to apply, as before, to traditional contracts of employment commencing on or after this date.
• 16 July 2026. Earlier draft of the updated guidance, now superseded by the 11 September draft. The guidance in force until 30 September 2026 is dated 26 June 2025.
• 11 September 2026. Publication date of the updated draft guidance covered in this article.
• 1 October 2026. The date the updated guidance takes effect. From this date, civil penalty liability can apply to worker’s contracts, individual subcontractors and online matching services, and the prescribed requirements for establishing a statutory excuse against extended liability apply to relevant contracts entered into on or after that date.

A Practical Compliance Checklist for Sponsor Licence Holders

Sponsor licence holders preparing for 1 October 2026 should consider the following steps.

• Review recruitment and onboarding procedures to make sure staff apply the correct share code format and 90-day validity period.
• Confirm that any digital verification provider used is registered on the OfDIA register before relying on it.
• Map labour supply chains, subcontracting arrangements and any contracts with substitution clauses against the extended liability examples in the guidance.
• Update supplier contracts to include the prescribed written statement terms wherever extended liability may apply.
• Review identity verification and re-verification processes for any workforce where substitution is permitted.
• Diarise follow-up checks for all sponsored and non-sponsored workers with time-limited permission.
• Make sure sponsor duties to check and retain evidence of a sponsored worker’s immigration status are being met independently of the right to work check itself.

Sponsor licence holders unsure how these changes affect a specific supply chain or staffing model should seek specialist immigration advice ahead of the commencement date.

Conclusion

The Home Office’s updated Employer’s guide to right to work checks was published in draft on 11 September 2026 and takes effect on 1 October 2026. It gives effect to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 by widening the definition of “employer” and introducing extended liability for certain contractual chains, alongside the established framework for manual, online and digital verification checks.

For sponsor licence holders, the update carries added weight. A failure to establish a statutory excuse can put a civil penalty, and the sponsor licence itself, at risk. Reviewing recruitment processes, supply chain contracts and follow-up check procedures now is the most effective way to stay compliant and to protect a sponsor licence against the consequences of illegal working.

Frequently Asked Questions About the 2026 Right to Work Check Update