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The COVID-related temporary concessions allowing employers greater flexibility when conducting right-to-work (RTW) checks ended on 30 September and, from 1 October 2022, such checks must be carried out in one of three prescribed ways.

Employers are expected to complete prescribed RTW checks against all recruits (regardless of nationality) to ensure they only employ individuals with the right to work in the UK. Failure to do so will leave an employer open to a civil penalty (of up to £20,000 per breach) if found to be employing an illegal worker. Compliant RTW checks secure a statutory excuse to civil liability for illegal working.

The adjusted RTW checks were introduced in March 2020 and were due to end in April 2022 but this was postponed to 30 September following the announcement that employers could use identification document validation technology (IDVT) to conduct RTW checks on holders of current British and Irish passports.

As of 1 October 2022, employers must carry out one of the following prescribed checks before employment begins:

1. a manual right to work check on a physical document or combination of documents as set out in the Home Office’s Right to Work Checklist. This is where original documents are seen in person, checked to ensure validity and identity, and a copy – signed and dated original seen - retained on file. This is the only acceptable way to check a British or Irish national who provides an expired passport, or a birth certificate together with proof of National Insurance number (as well as a number of other documents).
2. a Home Office online right to work check (using a share code generated by an employee or prospective employee who holds a biometric residence permit or card, or a digital immigration status)
3. a right to work check using IDVT through the services of an approved provider This is where a third-party provider (from the Home Office’s list of approved providers) conducts a check on the employer’s behalf. The employer will incur a fee for this service which is set by the individual provider and will vary by contract. Providers can only check current passports that belong to British and Irish nationals. Candidates with any other type of document, or an expired passport, cannot be checked via this route. Employer must still ensure they keep copies of the document as well as the check carried out for the statutory excuse to be established.

Although the temporary adjusted RTW checks have ended, there is no need for employers to retrospectively check the right to work of employees appointed using the adjusted checks made between 30 March 2020 and 30 September 2022. Provided the checks carried out during this time were done in the prescribed manner, employers will maintain a defence against a civil penalty.