Right to work checks now apply to every labour engagement, not just direct employees. From 1 October 2026, Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 extended the duty to agency workers, subcontractors, zero-hours staff and platform workers, with penalties of up to £60,000 per worker for repeat breaches. Agencies and umbrella companies that treated right to work checks as an employment-only obligation now carry exposure across the whole supply chain.
What Has Changed From 1 October 2026?
The statutory right to work check duty previously attached to the employment relationship. Section 48 removes that boundary and applies the duty to anyone engaged to provide labour, regardless of contractual form.
That captures:
- Agency workers on assignment through a recruitment business
- Workers engaged via an umbrella company
- Subcontractors within a labour supply chain
- Zero-hours and casual staff
- Platform and gig workers
The effect is simple to state and harder to administer. If a person is doing the work, someone in the chain must hold a compliant check, and liability can follow the engagement upwards where that check is missing or defective.
Who Holds the Check Duty in a Labour Supply Chain?
Liability extends up the supply chain, which is why contractual clarity now matters more than process alone. Where several parties sit between the worker and the end client, the law does not assume the obligation has been met simply because another party was closer to the worker.
The practical question is which party conducts the check, how evidence is retained, and how that is reflected in contract. An agency placing a worker through an umbrella company cannot assume the umbrella has completed and recorded a compliant check. Nor can an end client assume the agency has.
The only reliable position is a documented one. Contractual terms should state plainly who holds the check duty, require evidence to be retained and made available on request, and set out what happens when a check cannot be verified. Onboarding paperwork that predates 1 October 2026 may not reflect the expanded duty, so engagement terms should be reviewed rather than assumed to be adequate.
What Are the Penalties for Getting It Wrong?
Civil penalties reach £60,000 per worker for repeat breaches, with lower first-breach figures still running into tens of thousands. These are per-worker penalties, so a single flawed process applied across a workforce multiplies quickly.
A correctly conducted check performed before the engagement begins provides a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. The value of that defence depends entirely on evidence: the right documents, checked in the right way, dated and retained. A check that was done but cannot be produced offers no protection when a compliance enquiry lands.
Three points deserve attention:
- Checks must be completed before the worker starts the engagement, not retrospectively.
- Evidence must be retained for the duration of the engagement and afterwards, in line with Home Office guidance.
- Follow-up checks are required where a worker has time-limited permission to work.
How Should FCSA Members Respond?
FCSA Members should confirm now where the check duty sits for every engagement type they handle. The expansion of right to work checks rewards organisations that treat compliance as a documented, repeatable process and penalises those relying on assumption.
Practical steps include mapping every engagement model against the new duty, confirming in writing which party performs the check at each tier, auditing retention so evidence can be produced on demand, and tightening contractual terms so responsibility is explicit rather than implied. Where a preferred supplier or umbrella partner performs checks on your behalf, verify that their process meets Home Office requirements rather than taking it on trust.
FCSA Accreditation already requires Members to demonstrate robust compliance processes, and right to work verification sits squarely within that standard. The firms best placed under the new rules are those that can show, not merely assert, that every engagement is covered.
Conclusion
Right to work checks are now a supply-chain obligation, and liability travels with the engagement. The organisations that will withstand scrutiny are those that document who checks, how, and when — before an enquiry, not after one. FCSA’s position is unchanged: compliance is a process you can evidence, and worker protection and supply-chain integrity depend on getting it right at every tier.
To work with providers held to an independently assessed compliance standard, consult the FCSA Members register or read more about FCSA Accreditation.
Sources
- FCSA, Right to Work Checks: New Rules from 1 October 2026 — https://www.fcsa.org.uk/right-to-work-checks-new-rules-from-1-october-2026/
- Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, Section 48
- Home Office, right to work checks employer guidance
