Yes. From 1 October 2026 the Right to Work Scheme covers people engaged under a worker's contract, individual sub-contractors and online matching services, as well as employees. The Home Office's employer's guide of 1 October 2026 gives an employment business supplying temporary workers on contracts for services as its own example, and says that the employment business is the worker's employer for the Scheme, is responsible for the right to work check and may be liable for a civil penalty if the worker is found to be working illegally. A penalty for a worker in these new categories can only arise where the engagement began on or after 1 October 2026.
The change comes from section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, which widened the definition of employer in the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 and brought in extended liability. The Home Office published a new employer's guide and the seventh code of practice on the civil penalty scheme, both in force on 1 October 2026.
Three things follow for an agency. Every temp engaged on a contract for services since 1 October needs a prescribed check before the first shift, the online share code check for anyone with an eVisa, the original document for a British or Irish passport or another listed document, or a registered digital verification provider, with the dated copy kept for the engagement and two years after it. The penalty calculation starts at £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat within three years. And where an agency is under a contract to deliver a service to a client, rather than simply supplying workers, and brings in another business's people to do it, the new extended liability can reach the agency unless five written terms are in its contract with that business before the work starts, covering checks, sub-contracting, audit, enforcement and co-operation with the Home Office.
The right to work point is one of the twelve in our compliance checklist for recruitment agencies, and the hub guide to agency workers and temp desks was rewritten today. Members have the second edition of our right to work guide in the library.
Sources. Employer's guide to right to work checks, Home Office, 1 October 2026; Code of practice on preventing illegal working, Right to Work Scheme for employers, in force 1 October 2026; Penalties for employing illegal workers, gov.uk; the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, section 48, legislation.gov.uk.
The BIOR Membership Team, 14 October 2026.