Home Office Updates Right to Work Guidance Ahead of October Reforms

Employers’ Right to Work Guidance Updated July 2026

The Home Office has published updated employer guidance ahead of the expanded Right to Work regime taking effect on 1 October 2026. The revised guidance provides the first detailed explanation of how the Home Office expects the new regime to operate in practice.

Much of the additional guidance focuses on the expanded Right to Work Scheme introduced by the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. It clarifies how the Home Office intends to approach extended liability, contractual labour models and the wider compliance measures expected where businesses engage workers through more flexible arrangements.

As well as covering some of the practical questions left open by the legislation, the guidance also makes clear that compliance will extend well beyond carrying out a prescribed right to work check. Greater emphasis is to be placed on contractual controls, substitution procedures, identity verification, governance arrangements and maintaining evidence capable of demonstrating compliance in practice.

As such, the greatest practical impact is likely to be on organisations using subcontracting arrangements, worker’s contracts, online matching services and other contractual models that will fall within the expanded scope of the Right to Work regime.

‘Extended Liability’ Now Clarified

Extended liability has generated more discussion than almost any other aspect of the October reforms. The legislation expanded the Right to Work Scheme beyond traditional employment relationships, but left employers with relatively little indication of how those provisions would operate across more complex contractual arrangements.

The updated guidance confirms that the employer with the direct contractual relationship remains responsible for carrying out the prescribed right to work check, and that the extended liability provisions do not automatically transfer that responsibility simply because another organisation forms part of the contractual chain.

Where illegal working is identified, the Home Office will first seek to identify the direct employer. It will then consider the wider contractual arrangements before deciding whether liability may extend further. In reaching that decision, the guidance states that the Home Office will consider the role performed by each organisation, who is responsible for providing or arranging the work or services and whether the prescribed requirements for establishing a statutory excuse have been met.

The examples included within the guidance are helpful to a degree as they distinguish between businesses supplying work or services through contractual arrangements and those simply purchasing services for their own operations. Construction projects involving multiple subcontractors, logistics contracts delivered through contractual chains and certain online matching services are all identified as arrangements that may fall within scope. Contrast this with businesses purchasing cleaning services, organisations engaging temporary workers through an employment business and companies purchasing goods from another supplier would not ordinarily fall within the extended liability provisions.

How to Prepare for 1 October 2026 Right to Work Changes

One of the key messages running throughout the revised guidance is that the Home Office expects compliance to extend beyond carrying out an initial right to work check. Where the expanded Right to Work rules apply, employers should also be able to demonstrate that appropriate contractual obligations, governance arrangements and practical controls remain in place throughout the working relationship.

For organisations operating within contractual supply chains, the guidance sets out the types of contractual provisions expected to support a statutory excuse. These include obligations requiring prescribed right to work checks to be completed, restrictions on further subcontracting without approval, contractual audit rights, cooperation with Home Office investigations and enforcement provisions where illegal working is identified.

The guidance also makes clear that contractual provisions alone are unlikely to be sufficient. Organisations should be able to demonstrate that those arrangements operate effectively in practice through audit records, compliance monitoring and other evidence where requested by the Home Office.

The guidance also places greater emphasis on substitution arrangements. Where contracts allow one individual to be replaced by another, employers should ensure that substitute workers cannot begin work until a prescribed right to work check has been completed. The guidance also recommends processes to verify that the individual carrying out the work is the same person whose right to work has been checked.

Identity verification is also addressed in the updated guidance: while the guidance does not require employers to adopt digital identity verification, where employers choose to rely on prescribed digital identity verification, registered RtW DVSPs have to be used.

Alongside evidence of the prescribed right to work check itself, the guidance highlights the importance of maintaining appropriate contractual documentation, audit records, substitution records and other evidence capable of demonstrating that compliance arrangements operate effectively in practice rather than existing only on paper. Businesses should therefore use the period before 1 October to review the contractual and operational controls supporting their existing compliance arrangements, and review the records retained to demonstrate compliance.

Which Employers Will Be Affected?

Organisations delivering work through subcontracting arrangements, engaging individuals under worker’s contracts or operating online matching services should review both their contractual arrangements and existing compliance procedures in light of the updated guidance.

Businesses relying on substitution clauses should also review their arrangements carefully. The guidance makes clear that where one worker is permitted to substitute another, employers should have processes ensuring the substitute’s right to work is verified before work begins and that the individual carrying out the work is the same person whose identity has been checked.

Construction, logistics, facilities management, outsourced service providers and digital platform operators are among the sectors most likely to benefit from reviewing the updated guidance before 1 October. Larger organisations using multiple tiers of contractors or labour suppliers should also consider whether existing contracts contain sufficient right to work obligations, audit rights and compliance provisions to reflect the Home Office’s latest guidance.