Right to Work is live. Has your process caught up?

The expanded Right to Work Scheme came into force on 1 October 2026

The change extends the requirement beyond traditional employees to include people engaged under worker contracts, individual subcontractors and certain arrangements involving online matching services.

For umbrella companies, recruitment businesses and organisations operating CIS models, this is not simply another wording update. The difficult part is no longer understanding that a check is required. It is making sure the check relates to the person who actually performs the work.

The check is only the starting point

The final Home Office guidance confirms that a prescribed Right to Work check must be completed before the individual starts work.

Depending on the individual’s status, that could be:

• A Home Office online check

• A manual document check

• A check completed using a registered Right to Work digital verification service provider

  
  

Businesses must retain the required evidence for the duration of the engagement and for two years afterwards.

However, completing a valid check at registration does not solve every problem. Businesses must also have proportionate systems and processes to establish that the person undertaking the work is the person whose Right to Work was checked.

That creates a practical question for every supply chain:

• Who is checking the person who actually turns up?

• A contract clause is not a complete process

  
  

Where extended liability applies within a contractual chain, written terms are important. The regulations specify provisions covering Right to Work compliance, further subcontracting, audit rights, enforcement and cooperation with any Home Office investigation.

But changing the contract alone will not demonstrate that those requirements operate effectively in practice.

Recruitment businesses and umbrella companies need to understand:

• Who contracts directly with the individual

• Who completes the prescribed check

• How confirmation and evidence are passed through the chain

• Who verifies that the person providing the services matches the checked identity

• What happens if the contractual chain changes

• Whether audit rights are actually exercised

If one party is relying on another party’s systems, it should take reasonable steps to satisfy itself that those systems exist and are working.

The substitution issue

Substitution clauses create an additional risk.

Where substitution is permitted, the substitute must undergo a prescribed Right to Work check before providing any work or services. There must also be effective controls preventing an unchecked or unverified person from starting work.

That means businesses should consider:

• How a proposed substitution is reported

• Who approves it

• Who completes the new Right to Work check

• How the agency or end client is notified

• How the substitute’s identity is verified when they begin the assignment

• What happens if the original worker or substitute refuses to cooperate

A broad contractual right of substitution without an operating process behind it is unlikely to provide much comfort.

Five questions to ask now

Businesses should be able to answer the following:

1. Have we identified every working arrangement now within scope?

2. Is responsibility for the Right to Work check clearly allocated?

3. Do our contracts reflect the new requirements?

4. Can an unchecked substitute begin work anywhere in our supply chain?

5. Can we demonstrate that our controls work in practice?

If the answer to any of those is “I think so”, there is probably more work to do.

Shelley’s take

The legislation came into force on 1 October, but this is not a one-off onboarding exercise.

The real challenge is connecting the identity check, the contract and the person who turns up to perform the work. Updating terms is useful. Building a process that operates when a real substitution happens is what will matter.

Need help putting this into practice?

Understanding the new Right to Work requirements is one thing. Turning them into a process that works across umbrella, CIS and substitution arrangements is another.

I’m developing a practical Right to Work and Substitution Pack to help businesses:

• review their existing umbrella and CIS processes;

• identify gaps in ownership and responsibility;

• strengthen identity and substitution controls;

• update operational documents and supporting wording; and

• demonstrate that the controls work in practice.

  
  

If you would like details of the pack, or need a tailored review of your current arrangements, please get in touch.