Right to work checks: why sponsors must act now

6th May 2026 | Nelli Shevchenko | Immigration, Right to work checks, Home Office

For many businesses, right to work ("RTW") checks have historically been treated as an onboarding formality. A mere paper exercise sitting with HR. Historically, that has often been a reflection of where the practical risk sat. That position is becoming harder to maintain, particularly for sponsor licence holders.

All UK employers have a statutory duty to prevent illegal working. A compliant RTW check carried out before employment begins provides a statutory excuse against any civil penalty if illegal working is later identified. There is generally no standalone penalty for failing to carry out a check in isolation. The exposure becomes a real risk only when illegal working is discovered and no statutory excuse is available. The illegal working regime currently applies to employees under a contract of employment, service or apprenticeship, but this is set to expand to cover a broader category of “workers”.

Sponsors have always been held to a higher standard, and recent updates published on 6 March 2026 to the Sponsor Guidance raise the bar materially. Sponsors must now check the RTW of anyone they wish to sponsor (whether directly employed or not) and any worker they wish to employ or ‘directly engage’, including British citizens and settled workers. Depending on the working model, that potentially brings into scope self-employed contractors, consultants, subcontractors, casual staff and other individuals.

The phrase “directly engage” is critical for the rule’s interpretation but frustratingly remains undefined. The UKVI Guidance is inconsistent in its terminology, creating ambiguity and particularly around agency labour, which may fall outside the requirement if not “directly engaged”, though the wording does not clearly resolve the point.

The updated Guidance does not say the expanded expectations only apply once wider statutory reform commences, or even from the date the Guidance took effect. The Home Office appears to expect compliance now, under sponsor duties, even though wider legislative reform has not yet taken effect. That leaves sponsors in an uncomfortable position: they may be judged against standards that were not clearly articulated when earlier engagements took place.

A compliant RTW check must be carried out before engagement begins. It cannot be recreated retrospectively. A present-day status check is better than nothing and evidences current mitigation, but it cannot cure a historic gap. As a result, timely updates to the existing systems are required by the sponsors.

Failure to meet sponsor duties can result in licence downgrading, suspension or revocation, adverse outcomes at Home Office compliance visits, and increased scrutiny of historic RTW checks (via Home Office online records) during licence applications and audits. Critically, the updated Guidance means that the Home Office can take compliance action where there is a reasonable suspicion of non-compliance, rather than requiring actual evidence of it.

To find out more, contact Nelli Shevchenko or the Immigration team.