Right to work checks from 1 October 2026: agency guide

What changed on 1 October 2026

• Wider scope. The Scheme now covers engaging someone under a worker’s contract, engaging an individual sub-contractor, and online matching services that put a service provider in touch with customers (employer’s guide).
• Not retrospective. The relevant date is when the contractual arrangement is entered into. An arrangement made before 1 October 2026 is not brought into scope just because the work carries on, and there is no general grace period for new ones (employer’s guide, Annex C).
• Extended liability. Where a business is under contract to provide work or services to a third party, and uses another employer’s workers to do it, liability for a penalty can now reach that business too (employer’s guide).
• A final guide. The guide published on 1 October 2026 replaced the draft of 11 September 2026. It adds a clarification on TUPE transfers, how to sign up for updates from the Home Office, and Annex C, a set of questions and answers (employer’s guide).
• An updated code. The code of practice on preventing illegal working was updated the same day (GOV.UK).

What it means for a recruitment agency

The guide’s own examples answer the common agency questions. It calls an agency that supplies temps an “employment business”.

• Temps on a contract for services: you check. In Example 2, an employment business supplying temps on a contract for services is their employer for the Scheme, so it is responsible for the check (employer’s guide).
• Temps working inside a client’s own operations: the check stays with you. In Example 12, extended liability does not apply, and responsibility stays with the employment business. Annex C adds that, in a standard agency supply, the hirer is not meant to repeat the check as routine (employer’s guide).
• Contractors through their own limited company: it depends. In Example 6, a client contracting with a contractor’s personal service company for services does not need to check. But the guide says no single factor is decisive, so look at how each arrangement works in practice (employer’s guide).
• Repeat assignments: one check can cover them. A fresh check is not needed before each assignment while the same employer holds a valid statutory excuse and does any follow-up check before the worker’s permission ends (employer’s guide).

The three ways to check

To have a statutory excuse, the check must be one of these, done before the work starts (employer’s guide):

• A manual check of the person’s original documents.
• A Home Office online check, using the person’s share code.
• A check through a right to work digital verification service provider (a RtW DVSP), registered with the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes.

You cannot insist on one method: the guide says employers “cannot mandate the method” a person uses to show their right to work, and GOV.UK says you must not discriminate against anyone because of where they are from.

Can you delegate the check?

Yes. The guide allows the check to be delegated to staff, including agency workers, who work under your control and direction and are accountable to you. But the employer stays liable for a penalty if the check was not carried out as set out. The same goes for a digital verification provider: the employer, not the provider, remains responsible for the check meeting the requirements (employer’s guide).

TUPE and a change of employer

TUPE does not apply to people engaged as workers under a contract for services. If, on or after 1 October 2026, a new employer takes on such a worker after a change of employer, it must do a right to work check before the work starts if it wants a statutory excuse (employer’s guide).

Right to work checklist for agencies

• List every temp and contractor arrangement entered into since 1 October 2026, and note how each one is set up.
• Decide who does the check for each person, and do it before the work starts.
• Keep a dated copy of each check, as the guide sets out.
• Diary a follow-up check for anyone whose permission to work has an end date.
• Give every candidate the same fair chance to prove their right to work, as the guide’s section on avoiding discrimination expects.
• Sign up for updates from the Home Office, as the guide explains, so you hear about the next change.

Where software helps, and where a person decides

Software can take the admin around the check off your team: collecting share codes and uploads, reading documents, spotting a name or date that does not match your record, tracking end dates and sending reminders. Our guide to only opening the documents that need you shows how.

The check itself is one of the three routes above, carried out by your own staff or by a registered RtW DVSP, and a named person in your compliance team stays responsible for it (employer’s guide). Other software that flags a problem helps that person; it does not count as the check.