Right to Work Checks Now Cover Contractors and Gig Workers: What Changed on 1 October 2026

For years, right to work checks have been something you did for new employees: check the passport or share code, take a copy, file it, done. As of this week, that is no longer the whole picture.

Since 1 October 2026, the right to work rules have been extended well beyond your payroll. If you use contractors, freelancers, agency staff, subcontractors or people found through an online platform, you may now carry the same legal responsibility for checking their right to work as you do for your own employees, and the same fines if you get it wrong.

Here’s what has changed, who it affects, and what you should be doing about it now.

What has changed?

The changes come from the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, supported by an updated Home Office Code of Practice on preventing illegal working and an updated Employer’s Guide to Right to Work Checks.

The way you carry out a check hasn’t really changed. What has changed is who you need to check. The legal definition of “employer” for illegal working purposes now reaches people working for you under a much wider range of arrangements, including:

• workers (not just employees)
• individual contractors and self-employed subcontractors
• agency workers and other labour supplied through a third party
• people engaged through online job-matching platforms, such as gig economy apps

Liability can also travel up the supply chain. If you contract with a business that supplies people to do work for you, the expectation is that right to work checks are carried out on those individuals and that your contracts make clear who is responsible for doing them.

Does this mean every self-employed person needs a check?

No, and this is the bit causing the most confusion. The Home Office guidance distinguishes between individuals who are effectively doing work for you and genuinely independent businesses. Its own example is a plumber running their own business and taking work from lots of different customers. Calling them out to fix a leak doesn’t mean you need to check their right to work.

The question is no longer simply “Is this person an employee?” It’s “Is this person, in reality, working for us?” If someone works regularly for your business, under your direction, on your premises or as part of your team, you should assume they are in scope unless you have good reason to think otherwise. The label on the contract won’t decide it on its own.

The new requirements that catch people out

The extended rules bring in some extra expectations that don’t exist for a straightforward employee check:

• Substitutes. If a contract allows someone to send a substitute in their place, you need a process to make sure every substitute is checked before they start work. You can’t simply leave it to the contractor to check their own substitute.
• Knowing who is actually turning up. You are expected to have proportionate systems in place to make sure the person doing the work is the same person you checked. For many small businesses, that might simply mean ID badges, signing-in procedures or a manager who knows who should be on site.
• Digital ID checks. If you use an online provider to check identity documents, it must now be registered with the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA) and approved for right to work checks. If it isn’t, the check won’t protect you.
• Contracts. Where you rely on another organisation to carry out checks, your contracts should say so clearly, give you the right to see evidence, and allow you to suspend or end the arrangement if illegal working is suspected.

Do I need to recheck everyone I already use?

No. The new rules don’t require you to go back and retrospectively check contractors or workers already engaged before 1 October 2026. The extended requirements apply to new arrangements entered into from that date.

But don’t file this under “not my problem yet”. Any contractor or supplier relationship that starts, or is renewed, from now on falls under the new regime. And the usual rules on follow-up checks for people with time-limited permission to work still apply to your existing employees.

What happens if you get it wrong?

A correctly carried out and recorded right to work check gives you what’s known as a statutory excuse — your defence if the Home Office finds someone working for you illegally. Without it, the civil penalty is up to £45,000 per worker for a first breach and up to £60,000 per worker for a repeat breach. Knowingly using illegal workers can also be a criminal offence.

For a small business, a single penalty involving two or three people could be devastating. And you don’t need to have known someone wasn’t allowed to work here to be fined. Failing to carry out or evidence a proper check can be enough.

What should employers do now?

1. Map who actually works for you. Look beyond your payroll. List your contractors, freelancers, agency staff, subcontractors and anyone you find through apps or platforms.
2. Decide who is in scope. For each arrangement, ask whether the person is really working for you or is a genuinely independent business serving lots of customers. Record your reasoning.
3. Check your contracts and suppliers. Make sure it is clear who carries out right to work checks, that you can see the evidence, and that substitutes are covered.
4. Review your checking process. Use only the prescribed methods (manual document check, the Home Office online service, or an OfDIA-registered digital provider), keep copies, and diarise follow-up checks.
5. Update your policy and train your people. Managers who bring in contractors or book agency cover need to know the rules now apply to them too, not just to HR or recruitment.
6. Check consistently and fairly. Check everyone in scope in the same way. Only checking people who “seem” foreign risks a race discrimination claim, and the updated Code on avoiding discrimination applies alongside these changes.

How Cheviot HR can help

For many of the small and medium-sized businesses we work with across the North East, this is the first time right to work has stretched beyond the people on their payroll. We can help you work out who is in scope, update your right to work policy and contractor terms, and give your managers a simple, practical process they can actually follow.

If you’re not sure where you stand, get in touch at hello@cheviothr.co.uk and we’ll help you get it sorted.at this means for your business.