UK employers face civil penalties of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, with criminal prosecution available for knowingly employing someone without the right to work. The fines doubled in 2024 and the Home Office enforcement activity has increased significantly. Getting Right to Work checks right is not an HR administrative task — it is a legal obligation with material financial consequences for getting it wrong.
What Right to Work Means Legally
Every employer in the UK has a statutory duty to prevent illegal working under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, as amended by subsequent immigration legislation. The legal framework requires employers to:
- Check that a person has the right to work in the UK before employing them
- Retain copies of the documents checked or evidence of the online check conducted
- Conduct follow-up checks for employees with time-limited right to work
- Act on information showing a person no longer has the right to work
Compliance provides a “statutory excuse” — a legal defence that protects the employer from civil penalty even if the employee subsequently turns out to be working illegally. Without the statutory excuse, the employer is liable for the civil penalty regardless of whether they were aware of the illegal working.
Civil penalties in 2026
As of January 2024, the maximum civil penalty for employing an illegal worker increased to £60,000 per worker (up from £20,000). This applies to each individual found working illegally. An employer found with 5 illegal workers faces potential liability of £300,000. The penalty level is reduced for employers who co-operate fully with the investigation and have otherwise compliant processes.
List A vs List B Documents: The Full Breakdown
The Home Office divides acceptable Right to Work documents into two lists:
List A — Permanent right to work (no follow-up check required):
- UK passport (current or expired — only unexpired passports accepted for new hires)
- British National (Overseas) passport
- UK birth or adoption certificate with National Insurance number evidence
- Certificate of naturalisation or registration as a British citizen
- Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) indicating indefinite leave to remain
- eVisa confirming Settled Status under the EU Settlement Scheme
- Immigration status document confirming indefinite leave to remain
List B — Time-limited right to work (follow-up check required at expiry):
- Current passport with valid leave to enter or remain (e.g., Skilled Worker visa)
- BRP showing time-limited leave to remain
- eVisa confirming Pre-Settled Status under the EU Settlement Scheme
- Application Registration Card (asylum seekers)
- Positive Verification Notice from the Employer Checking Service (for those with outstanding applications or appeals)
The most common RTW mistake: not following up on List B documents
Employers who correctly check List B documents at the point of hire often lose their statutory excuse by failing to conduct the required follow-up check before the leave expires. If an employee is found working after their visa has expired and no follow-up check was conducted, the employer has no statutory excuse regardless of the original check. Your HR system must flag List B document expiry dates for review.
EU Citizens Post-Brexit: eVisa, Share Codes, and Settled Status
Post-Brexit Right to Work for EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals is the most common source of employer errors in 2026. The key facts:
EU nationals who arrived before 31 December 2020:
Those who applied to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) have either:
- Settled Status — Permanent right to work, equivalent to List A. Verified via the Home Office Online Right to Work Checking Service using a share code.
- Pre-Settled Status — Time-limited right to work, equivalent to List B. Verified via share code. Follow-up check required before the status expires.
Physical documents are no longer sufficient:
EU passports and identity cards cannot be used to verify Right to Work for EU nationals who arrived before 31 December 2020. Their right to work must be verified through the Home Office Online Right to Work Checking Service using a share code they generate from the UKVI platform. Accepting an EU passport as Right to Work evidence for these individuals does not provide a statutory excuse.
How the share code process works:
- The candidate logs in to the Home Office online service (view.gov.uk/prove-right-to-work)
- They generate a 9-character share code valid for 90 days
- The employer enters the share code plus the candidate date of birth at right-to-work.service.gov.uk/employer-guidance
- The system displays the candidate name, their right to work status, and any expiry date
- The employer must take and retain a screenshot or printout of the online check result
eVisa rollout 2025: what changed
From January 2025, the Home Office began replacing physical Biometric Residence Permits with eVisas for most immigration categories. Employers must use the online checking service to verify Right to Work for employees with eVisas — physical BRP cards issued before the transition remain valid but are gradually being replaced. Check the Home Office employer guidance for the current status of BRP acceptance.
Digital Right to Work Checks: IDSP Providers
Since April 2022, UK employers have been able to use certified Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) to conduct digital identity verification for British and Irish citizens with valid passports. This allows Right to Work checks to be completed remotely without the employee presenting their physical passport.
IDSP digital checks:
- Are available for British and Irish citizens only (not for other nationalities)
- Must be conducted through a Home Office-certified IDSP
- Provide a statutory excuse equivalent to a manual document check
- Allow fully remote onboarding without document posting or in-person verification
- Cost approximately £5 to £15 per check depending on the IDSP provider
Certified IDSPs include companies such as Yoti, Credas, TrustID, and Acuant. The full list is maintained on the Home Office website. Employers can integrate IDSP checks into their ATS workflow for candidates who complete onboarding remotely.
Record Keeping: What to Store and For How Long
The legal record-keeping requirements for Right to Work checks:
- What to store: A clear copy of both sides of any physical document checked (or the online check result screen if using the share code or IDSP process)
- Storage duration: Throughout the employee's employment and for 2 years after the employment ends
- Format: Any format that allows the document to be retrieved and produced for inspection. Secure electronic storage is acceptable and preferred.
- Online check records: Screenshot or PDF of the online check result page, showing the employee name, right to work confirmation, and any expiry date
GDPR and RTW records: balancing competing obligations
Right to Work records must be retained for 2 years post-employment under immigration law. GDPR requires that personal data is not kept longer than necessary for its purpose. These obligations are compatible: the 2-year retention period under immigration law provides the legal basis for retaining RTW documents beyond the employment period. Your data retention policy should explicitly reference this legal obligation as the basis for post-employment document retention.
Penalties for Non-Compliance: The Real Numbers
The consequences of non-compliance are significant and have escalated sharply in recent years:
- Civil penalty per illegal worker: Up to £60,000 (from 2024)
- Reduction for cooperation: 25 to 50% reduction for first offence employers who cooperate with the investigation and have an otherwise compliant process
- Criminal prosecution: Up to 5 years imprisonment for knowingly employing an illegal worker (Director/HR Manager level prosecution is increasingly pursued)
- Sponsorship licence suspension: Employers holding Skilled Worker or other sponsorship licences face suspension or revocation as an additional consequence
- Public disclosure: Employers receiving civil penalties are listed on the Home Office public register, creating reputational consequences beyond the financial penalty
| Scenario | Statutory Excuse | Maximum Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Valid check conducted, records retained | Yes | £0 |
| Valid check but records not retained | No | £60,000 per worker |
| No check conducted | No | £60,000 per worker |
| Check conducted but using wrong document type (e.g., EU passport for EUSS national) | No | £60,000 per worker |
| List B follow-up check not conducted after expiry | No (from expiry date) | £60,000 per worker |
| Knowingly employing illegal worker | No | Criminal prosecution |
How to Integrate RTW Checks Into Your ATS Workflow
An effective ATS-integrated Right to Work workflow covers both the pre-employment screening stage and the ongoing compliance management for employees with time-limited permissions:
Application stage:
- Knock-out question on the application form: candidates who cannot confirm right to work are auto-rejected before entering the pipeline
- Record of the screening question, candidate response, and timestamp maintained in the candidate record for audit purposes
Offer stage:
- RTW check task automatically assigned to HR when a candidate reaches the offer pipeline stage
- Document upload capability for candidates to submit evidence (for remote hiring workflows)
- Record of document type, document reference number, and check date stored in the HR record
Ongoing compliance (List B employees):
- Visa and status expiry dates entered in the HR system at onboarding
- Automated reminders 90, 60, and 30 days before expiry for HR and line manager
- Follow-up check task assigned and tracked in the HR system
- Failure to complete follow-up check flagged as a compliance risk in HR reporting
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I accept an EU passport as Right to Work evidence?
No, not as standalone evidence for EU nationals who arrived before 31 December 2020. For these individuals, Right to Work must be verified using the Home Office Online Checking Service with a share code. An EU passport does not demonstrate EU Settlement Scheme status or the right to work. Accepting it as RTW evidence does not provide a statutory excuse. For EU nationals arriving after 31 December 2020, they need a Skilled Worker visa or other qualifying status, verified through the online service.
What is a share code and how does it work?
A share code is a 9-character alphanumeric code that a candidate generates from the Home Office UKVI online service (view.gov.uk/prove-right-to-work). They share this code with you along with their date of birth. You enter both at right-to-work.service.gov.uk to see their right to work status. Share codes are valid for 90 days from generation. The check must be completed before employment begins and the result must be retained (screenshot or PDF).
Do I need to check Right to Work for all workers, including contractors?
UK law requires Right to Work checks for employees. For contractors and workers supplied through a recruitment agency, the employment business supplying the worker is responsible for conducting the check. If you are directly engaging freelancers or independent contractors without an intermediary agency, you should conduct equivalent checks to protect yourself, though the legal framework is less clear-cut than for direct employment.
How long do I need to keep Right to Work documents?
Right to Work check records must be retained for the duration of employment and for 2 years after the employment ends. This applies to both the copy of the document (or online check result) and any record of the check itself. After the 2-year period, the records should be securely destroyed in accordance with your data retention policy.
What happens if an employee's right to work expires?
If an employee is a List B worker with time-limited right to work, you must conduct a follow-up check before their permission expires. If the permission expires and you have not conducted a follow-up check confirming their continued right to work, you lose your statutory excuse from the date of expiry. You cannot continue to employ them until a new check confirming current right to work has been completed. If their new application is pending, you can request a Positive Verification Notice from the Employer Checking Service.
Right to Work compliance is one of the highest-risk areas of UK employment law, with penalties that have increased substantially and a post-Brexit landscape that has made verification more complex. Building the check workflow into your ATS — with screening questions at application stage, document tracking at offer stage, and expiry alerts for time-limited workers — transforms this from a manual compliance burden into an automated, auditable process. Treegarden includes Right to Work screening and compliance workflow management as standard features. Book a demo to see how it maps to your current process.