Expansion of Right to Work checks: What you need to know

Right to Work checks are back in the news again. This comes as part of the UK government’s ongoing focus on cracking down on illegal immigration and illegal working.

In recent months we have seen a significant change in approach from the Home Office, who are now taking a very robust approach to immigration compliance. This is especially the case for employers that hold sponsor licences to employ or sponsor international staff.

Across the board, we have seen a dramatic increase in Home Office audits and compliance visits, and this has also led to significantly more civil penalties being issued to employers for employing “illegal workers”. Most penalties that we come across (which can be up to £60k per illegal worker) are issued because employers do not conduct right to work checks properly, as opposed to them being unscrupulous employers. The rules around civil penalties are also complex and it can be challenging to get around a civil penalty once it has been issued.

In the latest news, the headline is that companies hiring people in the gig economy will now be legally required to carry out a right to work check to confirm that anyone working in their name is eligible to work in the UK. The press release states:

“This means that for the very first time, employment checks will be extended to cover businesses hiring gig economy and zero-hours workers in sectors like construction, food delivery, beauty salons and courier services.

Currently, thousands of companies using these flexible arrangements are not legally required to check the status of these workers. This changes now.

Where businesses fail to carry out these checks, they will face hefty penalties already in place for those hiring illegal workers in traditional roles, including fines of up to £60,000 per worker, business closures, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to 5 years.”

It is not yet clear what these changes will mean in practice. Traditionally, Right to Work checks had to be carried out only on employees. The new update is that right to work checks will have to be carried out on employees, workers and self-employed individuals. There are separate rules around performing a Right to Work check on contractors etc, which have also seen confusion recently when the wording of the policy guidance changed in relation to them.

At this stage, employers ought to be reviewing their Right to Work check processes and guidance. Any review should include non-employees and contractors and consider the approach taken to them. Any employers that hold a sponsor licence to sponsor international migrants should also be reviewing their processes and systems to ensure ongoing compliance with their sponsor management obligations. We offer audit support services and conduct mock audits to support immigration compliance and are happy to assist any employers on this front.

If you have any queries in relation to right to work checks, please get in touch with Jamie Kerr. 

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