Right to work checks now cover contractors and gig workers

If you use self-employed help — a subcontracted plasterer, a freelance driver, a cleaner booked through an app — the rules on checking the right to work in the UK changed on 1 October 2026.

What changed

Until now, the duty to check someone's right to work applied to employees. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 extends it to a wider range of working arrangements. The Home Office's updated employer guide, published on 1 October, says the scheme now also covers:

• people engaged on a worker's contract;
• individual sub-contractors who personally do the work;
• people found and engaged through an online matching service.

The guide says the label on a contract does not, by itself, decide whether the rules apply. What matters is the real arrangement — for example, whether the individual personally provides the work.

Does it apply to people I already use?

For these new groups, a penalty can only be imposed where the arrangement started on or after 1 October 2026. You do not have to go back and check people who were already working for you under these arrangements before that date.

The penalty and the 'statutory excuse'

GOV.UK says a business can face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker. Knowingly employing someone without the right to work is a criminal offence that can lead to up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine.

You protect yourself by doing the prescribed check — in person, online with a share code, or through a certified digital identity provider — before the work starts, and keeping a record. That gives you a statutory excuse against the civil penalty. For someone with time-limited permission, you need a follow-up check before it runs out.

What to do this week

1. List the people who do work for you who are not employees.
2. For anyone you take on from now, do the right to work check before day one and keep a dated copy.
3. Update your contracts with sub-contractors and platforms so it is clear who does the check.

The full 83-page guide, including a new questions-and-answers annex, is on GOV.UK.