Right to Work Check Procedures - UK Employer Guide

Every UK employer must check that a person is allowed to do the work on offer before employment begins. This applies to every hire, including British and Irish citizens, and it applies whether the role is full time, part time, permanent or casual.

The stakes are substantial. Since 13 February 2024 the civil penalty for employing an illegal worker starts at £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 per worker for repeat breaches. Those figures remain current as of July 2026.

A correctly conducted check gives you a statutory excuse. This is a legal defence that protects you from a civil penalty if an employee later turns out to be working illegally, provided you followed the prescribed procedure and kept the right evidence.

There are three prescribed routes: a manual check of original documents, a Home Office online check using a share code, and a digital identity check for British and Irish citizens who hold a valid passport. Which route applies depends on the candidate's nationality and immigration status, so your recruitment procedure needs to cover all three.

Primary sources: the Home Office employer's guide to right to work checks (current version dated 26 June 2025), the GOV.UK page on penalties for employing illegal workers, and the code of practice on preventing illegal working.

Why This Matters

Right to work compliance is one of the few areas of employment procedure where a single administrative slip can cost tens of thousands of pounds. The penalty is calculated per worker, so a small business that hires three people without correct checks faces a starting exposure of £135,000.

The Home Office does not need to prove you knew anything was wrong. Civil penalties are issued on a strict basis: either you completed a prescribed check and kept the evidence, or you did not. Good intentions, verbal assurances and partial paperwork do not count.

Enforcement is also becoming broader. A draft revised code of practice was published on 30 June 2026 and is due to take effect from 1 October 2026, extending the reach of the civil penalty scheme, so a written procedure that your hiring managers actually follow matters more than ever.

1. The Manual Document Check

A manual check means examining original documents from the Home Office lists of acceptable documents. List A documents (such as a British passport or evidence of indefinite leave) prove a permanent right to work. List B documents prove a time-limited right.

The procedure has three steps: obtain, check, copy. You must obtain the original documents, check them in the presence of the holder, and make a clear copy that you retain securely.

When checking, satisfy yourself that the documents are genuine, that photographs and dates of birth are consistent with the person in front of you, that expiry dates have not passed, and that any work restrictions (such as student hour limits) are understood. If names differ across documents, ask for supporting evidence such as a marriage certificate.

2. The Home Office Online Check

Most foreign nationals now prove their right to work through their digital immigration status (eVisa). The candidate generates a share code and gives it to you, and you enter the code and their date of birth into the check a job applicant's right to work service on GOV.UK.

A share code is valid for 90 days. The service shows the candidate's photograph, the work they are permitted to do and any time limit on their permission. You must check that the photograph matches the person, then retain the profile page as evidence.

Two points catch employers out. British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so this route never applies to them. And viewing the code the candidate sends you as a screenshot is not a check; you must run the code through the employer service yourself.

3. Digital Identity Checks for British and Irish Passport Holders

Since 6 April 2022 employers have been able to use Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT) through a certified provider to check British and Irish citizens who hold a valid passport (or Irish passport card). The provider verifies the passport digitally and confirms the person's identity remotely, which removes the need to handle physical documents.

The 26 June 2025 edition of the employer's guide revised the terminology, referring to digital verification services rather than identity service providers, but the mechanics are the same. You must use a certified provider, satisfy yourself the check is done to the required standard, confirm the photograph matches the candidate, and keep the output of the check.

This route is optional and paid for by the employer. A manual check of the same passport remains equally valid, so smaller employers often reserve digital checks for remote hiring.

4. The Statutory Excuse

The statutory excuse is the whole point of the procedure. If you completed a prescribed check correctly before employment started, you are excused from a civil penalty even if the worker is later found to be working illegally.

Each route establishes the excuse differently. A manual List A check or a correctly conducted digital check on a valid British or Irish passport gives a continuous excuse for the duration of employment. A manual List B check or an online check showing time-limited permission gives a time-limited excuse that expires when the permission does.

The excuse only holds if every step was followed. A copy taken without seeing the original, a check done after the start date, or a missing date record can all void it. The excuse also does not protect an employer who knew, or had reasonable cause to believe, the person had no right to work.

5. Follow-Up Checks for Time-Limited Permission

Where an employee has time-limited permission, you must carry out a follow-up check on or before the date the permission ends. Diarise the expiry date at the point of hire and build a reminder into your HR system.

If the employee has an outstanding application, appeal or administrative review with the Home Office at that point, you cannot complete a standard check. Instead you request verification from the Employer Checking Service. A Positive Verification Notice gives you a statutory excuse for six months, after which a further check is due.

No follow-up is required for employees with a permanent right to work, including British and Irish citizens, holders of indefinite leave and people with settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. You also do not need to re-check EU, EEA or Swiss employees who started before 1 July 2021.

6. Record-Keeping Requirements

For manual checks, copy each document in a format that cannot be manually altered, such as a PDF or JPEG. For online checks, keep the profile page from the employer service. For digital identity checks, keep the identity check output supplied by the provider.

Record the date the check was carried out, either written on the copy itself or held in a separate secure record. Without a dated record you cannot show the check happened before employment began.

Retain the evidence for the duration of the person's employment plus two years after they leave, then destroy it securely. Store it in line with UK GDPR, since check records contain identity data.

Right to Work Check Routes at a Glance

Route	Who it covers	What you keep
Manual document check	Anyone with acceptable List A or List B documents, including British and Irish citizens	Clear copies of each document in an unalterable format, plus the date of the check
Home Office online check (share code)	Holders of digital immigration status (eVisa); not available for British or Irish citizens	The profile page from the online service, plus the date of the check
Digital identity check (IDVT)	British and Irish citizens with a valid passport or Irish passport card	The identity check output from the certified provider, plus the date of the check

What Employers Must Do

1. Check before day one. Complete the right to work check before employment starts, not during the first week. A late check gives no statutory excuse for the period already worked.
2. Apply the correct route. Use the share code service for anyone with digital status, and a manual or digital identity check for British and Irish citizens. Never accept a screenshot in place of running the check yourself.
3. Verify the person as well as the paperwork. Compare photographs and dates of birth against the individual, in person or over a live video call, whichever route you use.
4. Record the date and keep the evidence. Store copies in an unalterable format for the length of employment plus two years, then destroy them securely.
5. Diarise every expiry date. Set reminders for follow-up checks well before time-limited permission runs out, and use the Employer Checking Service where an application is pending.
6. Write the procedure down and train it. A documented procedure applied consistently to every candidate protects the statutory excuse and guards against discrimination claims.

Common Errors to Avoid

• Checking only candidates who "look foreign". Selective checking is unlawful race discrimination and leaves gaps in your statutory excuse. Check everyone, every time.
• Accepting photocopies or expired documents in a manual check. You must see the original, current document; a copy of a copy establishes no excuse at all.
• Treating a candidate's screenshot of their status as an online check. Only the result generated by the employer service with a share code counts as a prescribed check.
• Missing a follow-up check. When time-limited permission expires, your excuse expires with it, and continued employment becomes a penalty risk from that date.
• Failing to record the check date. Undated evidence cannot prove the check preceded employment, which is exactly what the Home Office will ask you to show.
• Keeping records too long or not long enough. Destroy records two years after employment ends; deleting them earlier leaves you unable to defend a penalty notice.

Civil Penalties, Criminal Offences and Closure Notices

The civil penalty scheme is the main enforcement tool. The starting penalty is £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 per worker for repeat breaches, set at these levels on 13 February 2024. Reductions of £5,000 per worker are available for reporting suspected illegal working and for active cooperation, and a first breach with strong mitigation can be reduced to a warning notice.

Knowingly employing someone without the right to work is a separate criminal offence. An employer who knew, or had reasonable cause to believe, that an employee could not work in the UK faces up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine.

Immigration Enforcement can also issue an illegal working closure notice, shutting premises for up to 48 hours where an employer repeatedly uses illegal labour. A court can then impose a compliance order placing longer-term conditions on the business. With the revised code of practice due from 1 October 2026 extending the scheme's reach, including greater scrutiny of labour supply chains, procedures need reviewing now rather than after a penalty notice arrives.

How Policy Pros Can Help

A compliant check is only as reliable as the procedure behind it. We write pre-employment checks policies that set out exactly which route applies to which candidate, who carries out the check, what evidence is retained and how follow-up dates are tracked. That gives your hiring managers a single documented process to follow for every appointment.

Right to work sits inside a wider hiring framework, so we also prepare recruitment and selection policies that build the check into your offer process, and employing foreign nationals policies for businesses that sponsor workers or employ people with time-limited permission.

If you sponsor overseas staff, pay thresholds change alongside check procedures. Our Skilled Worker visa salary thresholds guide covers the current figures. Get in touch and we will make sure your paperwork protects the statutory excuse from day one.