From 1 October 2026, right to work checks will apply to a far wider group of workers than before. Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 extends the illegal working regime beyond traditional employees to cover agency workers, subcontractors, zero-hours staff, and gig and platform workers. Recruitment agencies and umbrella companies sit squarely in scope.
This is a structural change to how the compliance duty is drawn. Businesses that have only ever run right to work checks on direct employees now need to account for everyone they engage, however the engagement is labelled.
What Changes on 1 October 2026?
The illegal working civil penalty regime currently attaches to employment under a contract of service. Section 48 broadens that reach. From 1 October 2026, the duty to establish a person’s right to work will capture individuals engaged under a wider range of arrangements, including:
- Agency workers placed by recruitment businesses
- Subcontractors within a labour supply chain
- Zero-hours and casual workers
- Gig economy and digital platform workers
The practical effect is that the question is no longer “is this person my employee?” but “am I engaging this person’s labour?” If the answer is yes, the check obligation is likely to apply.
Why This Matters for the Recruitment Sector
Temporary labour supply is built on layered engagement. A worker might be sourced by one agency, contracted through another, paid by an umbrella company and deployed at an end client’s site. Section 48 forces every party in that chain to be clear about who carries the right to work duty for each individual.
Civil penalties for illegal working currently run to £60,000 per worker for repeat breaches. Extending the regime to agency and platform workers raises the exposure for businesses that previously treated these categories as outside the check requirement.
The reputational cost is separate from the financial one. A published penalty tells clients and workers that a business does not control its own supply chain.
Who Should Carry the Check?
Where multiple parties engage the same worker, responsibility must be documented rather than assumed. Agencies and umbrella companies should agree in writing which party completes the check, retains the evidence and refreshes it when a time-limited right to work expires. A verbal understanding is worthless in front of an enforcement officer.
How FCSA Members Should Prepare
The compliant response is procedural, not complicated. Before 1 October 2026, businesses engaging workers through any of the newly covered routes should:
- Map every category of worker they engage, including those placed through third parties, and identify which now fall in scope.
- Confirm who holds the check duty for each engagement type and record it in the contractual arrangements between agency, umbrella and client.
- Use the Home Office online check service or a certified identity service provider where a digital check applies, and retain a clear audit trail with follow-up dates for time-limited permissions.
- Train the staff who onboard workers so checks happen before the first shift, not retrospectively.
FCSA Accreditation already requires Members to operate robust onboarding and right to work processes as part of the compliance standard. The October change raises the stakes for the wider market, but it should not disrupt an FCSA Member that maintains proper documentation and clear supply-chain responsibilities.
FCSA’s Position
The direction of travel is consistent. Whether it is joint and several liability for PAYE, the Fair Work Agency’s enforcement remit or the extension of right to work checks, the government is closing the gaps that allowed non-compliant operators to hide behind the way an engagement was structured. Labelling a worker as a contractor, a platform user or an agency temp no longer removes the obligation to check their right to work.
Agencies and umbrella companies should treat 1 October 2026 as a fixed deadline and have their processes documented well ahead of it. Working with an FCSA Accredited Member is the clearest way to confirm that right to work checks, and the wider compliance obligations that sit alongside them, are handled properly across the labour supply chain. You can confirm a provider’s standing on the FCSA Members register.
