Right to Work checks are changing on 1 October 2026. Here is what it means for you.

The Home Office has published draft guidance setting out the biggest expansion of the Right to Work regime in years. From 1 October 2026, the rules stop being an employee only onboarding step. If your organisation uses contractors, casual labour, agency staff or platform workers, the obligation to check now reaches you.

Here is what is changing and what you should be doing before October.

The scope is getting much wider

Right to Work checks currently apply to people engaged under a contract of employment, service or apprenticeship. Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 changes that.

From 1 October, the regime also covers:

• Worker's contracts, including zero hours and casual arrangements
• Individual subcontractors
• Online matching services and gig platforms

In practice, that means a large group of people who have never been checked before will now need to be.

Liability can travel up the chain

This is the part most businesses have missed. The draft guidance introduces extended liability, so civil penalty exposure is no longer limited to whoever holds the direct contract with the individual.

If the Home Office cannot identify the party with the direct contractual relationship, others in the chain can be treated as the employer. Anyone using subcontracted or platform labour is exposed.

Penalties currently reach £60,000 per illegal worker, so the cost of getting this wrong is not trivial.

Substitution clauses now need a process

Where a contract allows one person to be replaced by another, you will be expected to prove that the individual actually doing the work is the individual you checked.

That means a documented process for verifying identity at the point of work, not just at onboarding. Access passes, ID cards, facial verification and re-verification at set intervals are all referenced in the draft.

Digital checks must go through a registered provider

If you choose to complete Right to Work checks digitally, from 1 October you must use a Right to Work Digital Verification Service Provider registered with the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes.

Using an unregistered provider will not give you a statutory excuse. Worth checking now who you are using and whether they are on the register.

What to do before October

Audit your workforce Categorise everyone by engagement type: employee, worker, individual subcontractor, agency, platform or genuinely self employed. You cannot fix what you have not mapped.

Review your contracts Agency, subcontractor and supplier agreements need clauses that push check obligations down the chain and give you evidence when challenged.

Extend your onboarding Build checks into every engagement route, not just permanent hires.

Confirm your provider is registered If you check digitally, confirm OFDIA registration in writing.

Keep your evidence A statutory excuse is only as good as the record behind it.

Where TalentClouds comes in

We deliver Right to Work checks and Digital ID verification for local authorities, care providers, education settings and private sector employers across the UK. Our platform is ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 certified and available through G Cloud 14.

If you are working out what October means for your contractor or casual workforce, we can walk you through it and get your process compliant before the deadline.

Get in touch or book a demo and we will take you through it.

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*This blog is advisory and reflects TalentClouds' current view of best practice. It is provided for information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. While every care has been taken to ensure accuracy, TalentClouds gives no guarantees or warranties in this regard, or for any loss arising from reliance on this information. The draft Code of Practice and Employer's guide remain subject to change before 1 October 2026.*