UK right-to-work code now covers gig workers and sub-contractors

UK right-to-work code now covers gig workers and sub-contractors

1 October 2026: The Home Office's revised right-to-work code of practice has taken effect, and it extends the duty to check a person's immigration status beyond employees to workers on worker's contracts, individual sub-contractors and people found through online matching platforms. The penalty levels in the code are unchanged at £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach within three years.

The code, the seventh version, is issued under section 19 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 and replaces the January 2024 edition. It follows section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, which widens the definition of employer. Lewis Silkin reports that Statutory Instrument 2026/683 brings those provisions into force.

Who counts as the employer now

The code covers a person who engages someone under a worker's contract, engages an individual sub-contractor, or runs an online matching service. The code defines that last group as a business that keeps a register of service providers, provides an online service for clients to be matched with them, and charges a fee or commission for the match.

Liability can also reach up the chain. A person contracted to supply work to a third party who then uses another employer to provide the workers, an online platform whose service provider contracts with a client, and an employer whose contract allows a worker to send a substitute can all be treated as the employer. To keep a statutory excuse in those cases they must meet prescribed requirements on written contract terms, substitution controls and identity verification.

For the new categories, a penalty can only be imposed where the work began on or after 1 October 2026. Individuals trading on their own account and contracting directly with customers stay outside the scheme, but the code says this does not cover people who obtain work through an intermediary or platform without running an independent business.

Digital checks and the penalty ladder

Employers who use a digital identity service for right-to-work checks must now choose a right-to-work digital verification service provider that is on the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes register with a note confirming it can do those checks. Using one remains optional, and manual and Home Office online checks still work. The code also accepts a digital version of an official document showing a National Insurance number.

The starting penalty is £45,000 per worker, or £60,000 where the employer has been found employing illegal workers in the previous three years. The code reduces the figure by £5,000 per worker for each mitigating factor, such as reporting suspected illegal workers and active cooperation with the Home Office.

Staffing agencies and platforms that matched people to clients before 1 October should check which of their contracts began on or after that date, since those are the ones that carry penalty exposure.

Sources

• Home Office: Code of practice on preventing illegal working, Right to Work Scheme for employers (1 October 2026), 1 October 2026
• GOV.UK: Employer's guide to right to work checks (updated 1 October 2026), 1 October 2026
• Lewis Silkin: Preventing illegal working and right to work checks, what changes from 1 October 2026, 2 July 2026