Right to work changes: What is changing and where are we with these changes?
In December 2025, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 Act (“the 2025 Act”) received royal assent. Included within the 2025 Act was an amendment to the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”) to change the laws on illegal working in the UK.
What has changed?
Previously, the 2006 Act applied the liability for illegal working penalties and criminal offences to employers of direct employers. The 2025 Act expands this scope to include:
- Workers under a work contract, whether written or implied,
- Self-employed contractors
- Gig-economy or platform-based service providers
- Sub-contractors, casual and zero-hours workers.
The biggest implication to employers is the imposition of liability through supply chains. Businesses that are not the direct contract party but are involved in the engagement of labour may still be treated as the employer for the purposes of civil penalty and criminal offence proceedings. Multiple businesses within a chain of contracts can be jointly liable for the same instance of illegal working.
How will this change Right to Work procedure?
We await updates in the operational instructions for checking the right to work, but anticipate that the requirement to obtain a statutory excuse, i.e. a document that evidences a person’s right to work has been checked ahead of engaging them in employment will extend beyond direct employees to every level of employment in the supply chain of contractual work in which the organisation is involved.
When will these changes be implemented?
While the 2025 Act has achieved Royal Assent, the commencement order for this part of the Act has not been set and has no commencement regulations, which means it is not yet being enforced. Consultations completed on these changes at the end of 2025, so we await a commence order on section 48 of the 2025 Act and accompanying guidance.
What should companies be doing now?
With these changes expected imminently, employers should become familiar with these legal changes and should undertake internal investigations to understand the supply chains being used and where right to work checks might need to be undertaken in the future to understand if the company faces any future risk in this regards.
Book a free consultation with our right to work experts today to discuss how you can prepare for these changes:
