A new starter arrives for Friday service through an agency, a staffing platform or a contractor. The practical question is no longer only whether somebody checked their right to work. It is also who engaged them, under what arrangement, and who is responsible for that check.
That distinction matters because the right-to-work scheme expanded on 1 October. It now reaches some working arrangements outside conventional employment. It is a material change, but not a blanket instruction for every venue to recheck every contractor, supplier or agency worker.
What changed, and when?
On 1 October 2026, right-to-work duties were extended to people engaged under certain worker's contracts, individual subcontracting arrangements and online matching services. The Home Office published its final employer's guide to right-to-work checks on the same date.
The expansion is already in force. It is not a consultation or a future proposal. The underlying regulations came into force on 1 October 2026, alongside an updated code of practice on avoiding illegal working.
For the newly covered direct arrangements, the Home Office guide says the civil-penalty scheme applies where the work started on or after 1 October. Separate extended-liability provisions can apply to relevant contractual arrangements entered into on or after that date.
Who can now be in scope?
Traditional employees remain covered. The new guidance also reaches some people who personally perform work under arrangements labelled as casual work, self-employment, subcontracting or platform work.
The label does not decide the position. The Home Office says the facts and how the arrangement works in practice matter. A document headed “contractor” will not settle the question if the reality looks different.
That makes this relevant to hospitality businesses using more than their own payroll. Depending on the structure, it may touch casual workers, individual subcontractors, labour supplied through online matching services and arrangements in which another person can be sent as a substitute.
What this does not mean
The change does not make every business-to-business supplier part of the right-to-work scheme. The Home Office guide says independent businesses operating in their own name, including companies contracting directly with customers to provide goods or services, will generally fall outside the new direct duties. Ordinary purchases of professional or operational services are not automatically caught.
Nor does a venue automatically inherit an agency's responsibility. The guidance gives a hospitality example in which an employment business supplies temporary workers to bars and restaurants under contracts for services. In that example, the employment business is responsible for the checks. The bar or restaurant does not have to repeat them simply because the worker turns up at its premises.
There is also no blanket requirement to recheck every existing contractor on 1 October. The dates and the nature of the arrangement matter. However, a business should still understand who has responsibility rather than relying on a vague assurance that “the agency handles it”.
Where extended liability can arise
The scheme now includes extended-liability rules for certain contracting chains, matching services and substitution arrangements. These are intended to stop responsibility disappearing through a chain of contracts when the relevant conditions are met.
They do not apply to every venue buying work or services. The Home Office guide says a client or end user buying services for its internal operations is not automatically covered merely because another business supplies the people doing the work. An employment business also remains responsible for its own workers in the ordinary agency example.
The position can change where a business controls part of a labour-supply chain, runs a matching service, permits substitution or contracts directly with an individual to do the work. Those boundaries are fact-specific. A complex arrangement should be reviewed with the agency, contractor or adviser rather than decided from the invoice description alone.
What a hospitality business should check now
- Map every route into a shift. List people arriving through payroll, employment businesses, staffing platforms, individual contractors, outsourced services and substitution arrangements. This is about understanding the route, not treating every route as the same.
- Name the responsible party. For each route, record who is the contractual employer or engager and who completes the prescribed right-to-work check. Ask agencies and suppliers to confirm their responsibility in writing.
- Keep onboarding ahead of the rota. Nobody should first encounter an unresolved right-to-work question at the start of service. Build the relevant check or supplier confirmation into recruitment and booking before the first shift.
- Confirm the person matches the check. The process needs to connect the person who was checked with the person who turns up. Make sure venue managers know how to deal with substitutions, swapped bookings and unfamiliar agency staff without making assumptions based on nationality or appearance.
- Use the prescribed process where the business is responsible. Follow the current Home Office route for an online, digital or manual check as appropriate. The employer checklist was updated on 1 October.
- Retain the evidence securely. The checklist says employers should keep a secure record of the check for the duration of employment and for two years afterwards, then securely destroy it. Apply your approved access, retention and data-protection process rather than leaving identity documents in an inbox or rota chat.
- Schedule follow-up checks. Where permission is time-limited, record the expiry and the required follow-up date in the authorised HR process. Do not rely on a manager remembering it during a busy week.
- Review contracts where the chain is complicated. The Home Office guide describes written terms, limits on subcontracting, audit rights and practical monitoring that may be relevant where extended liability genuinely applies. Contract wording alone is not enough, so take advice on the arrangement rather than copying clauses into every supplier agreement.
- Apply the process consistently. Right-to-work checks should be based on the role and arrangement, not somebody's accent, name, nationality or appearance. The Home Office code of practice should be read alongside the separate discrimination guidance referenced there.
What remains uncertain?
The expansion and its start date are settled. The uncertainty lies in classifying individual arrangements: whether somebody is genuinely operating an independent business, whether personal work is required, who is the contractual engager, and whether extended liability applies within a chain.
Those are legal and contractual questions. A venue manager can still make the operation safer without trying to answer them alone: map how labour reaches the rota, keep the evidence with the responsible business, and escalate any route that cannot be explained clearly.
The practical point: do not turn this into a nationality check at the door or a mass recheck of every supplier. Start with the contract and the labour route. Make sure somebody clearly owns the prescribed check before the person works their first shift.
Topics: Right to work, recruitment, casual workers, contractors and compliance.
General information only: This briefing is not legal advice. Employment status, right-to-work responsibility and extended liability depend on the facts of each arrangement. Check the current Home Office guidance and obtain advice on individual circumstances.