As sponsor duties expand in practice, accountability for whose RTW status is checked, when, and by whom will need careful consideration and planning. This will not just be a RTW compliance consideration, but an important operational consideration for your business. Issues may arise with monitoring decentralised hiring, contractor arrangements, agency staff etc. RTW failures now not only carry a civil penalty fine (as well as ‘naming and shaming’) but can also lead directly to sponsor licence sanctions (such as licence revocation).
Timeline
The Government initially published a consultation on extending the RTW regime to cover businesses hiring gig economy and zero-hours workers in sectors like construction, food delivery, beauty salons, courier services and warehousing. However, the Home Office rarely carves out guidance on a sector-by-sector basis, and the sponsor licence rules apply to all sectors. Therefore, even if you consider you are not a high-risk sector you will need to take these changes seriously.
Timeline of recent topical events:
- October to December 2025 – Consultation on extending RTW regime to cover businesses hiring gig economy and zero-hours workers. We are still waiting for this to conclude with recommendations.
- 2 December 2025 – Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (the “2025 Act”) was enacted (commencement date yet to be passed). We envisage this will apply to all organisations and individuals engaging staff, vastly expanding current RTW rules, in an attempt to clamp down on illegal working.
- 6 March 2026 – The Home Office suggests extending the duty to conduct RTW checks beyond sponsored visa holders, to capture anyone ‘engaged’ by the sponsor (this was not clearly defined); this ‘jumped the gun’ on the commencement of the new 2025 Act for sponsor licence holders.
- 8 April 2026 – Further Home Office guidance brought in, referencing RTW checks being required for those who are ‘directly engaged’ by the sponsor. This suggested sponsors are to beheld to a much higher standard (through enforcement of their sponsor duties), compared to non-sponsors, with RTW measures expanding beyond current legislation.
- 15 April 2026 – New draft code of practice published on avoiding unlawful discrimination while preventing illegal working. This was open consultation until 29 April 2026. Interestingly, the draft code defines “employer” and “worker” very broadly, encompassing workers, individual sub-contractors, and individuals engaged via online matching services. This corresponds with the wording of the new 2025 Act. Importantly, for the first time, we have a proposed commencement date for the 2025 Act, 1 October 2026, suggesting the Act will take effect on this date, or shortly after.
- 20 May 2026 – The Home Office reverses their position regarding “directly engage” and this phrase has been removed from the guidance. Essentially this has reinstated the previous pre-6th March situation, and a Sponsor Licence holder only has to undertake RTW checks on their employees plus any non-employees who they sponsor. We may see this phrase return when the 2005 Act comes into force later this year.
Questions to ask internally if you hold a Sponsor Licence
- Do you have clear ownership and accountability of RTW checks and compliance across the business, covering all staff (beyond your employees)?
- Do your relevant teams (HR / Onboarding / Procurement) genuinely have visibility of who is being employed/sponsored by the business, and the understanding of when and why RTW checks are required?
- Would your RTW processes stand up to a Home Office audit?
Who is likely to be in scope of the new RTW regime?
As things stand, RTW checks are limited to just those who are direct employees or sponsored on a visa. However, once the 2025 Act is in force (and subject to further guidance being provided by the Government in the interim), we envisage the new RTW regime for all organisations and individuals who have staff or engage with third parties may look something like this:
Predicted to be in-scope for new RTW checking regime
- Employees with a contract of employment
- Self-employed contractors
- Partners
- Directors
- Long term secondees from a separate business
- Agency staff
Predicted to be out-of-scope of new RTW checking regime
- Clients of your business
- Outsourced front of house/reception staff for a shared building
- Onsite catering staff for a shared building
- Tradespersons (e.g. attending your premises for a few days to fix an issue)
- Ordering food from an online platform for a work party (you shouldn’t need to do a RTW on the delivery driver, as you are operating as the client/customer)
- Using an online taxi platform as the official transport for your business
- Third party delivery drivers
- Outsourced HR function
Summary
Right to work compliance is no longer just an onboarding ‘checklist’ item. In our view, these recent guidance updates affecting sponsors gives a clear picture of the direction the Government is heading on RTW checks, and signals what the new RTW regime will likely look like for all organisations (sponsors and non-sponsors) in the near future. The future regime will expand beyond traditional employees, with potentially far-reaching implications for how HR teams engage, verify and onboard those engaged under atypical arrangements.
What Sponsor Licence holders should be doing now. As outlined above, sponsors are now already operating under a more onerous RTW checking regime. Accordingly, we recommend the following steps:
- Inform leadership that changes are already being rolled out, further changes likely this year, and additional budget may be required to ensure compliance.
- Map out all workers you employ and ‘directly engage’, not just sponsored employees — including agency workers, secondees and self‑employed individuals.
- Review contracts with third party contractors, agency staff and self-employed consultancy agreements to make sure warranties and indemnities are appropriately drafted.
- Operationally check with HR, recruitment and onboarding operations, who is now responsible for these additional checks and if more resources are needed.
- Consider tech solutions to help manage the increase in volume (Digital Verification Services (DVS) providers can help to streamline)
- Stress‑test your framework prior to October 2026 when non-compliance will likely risk civil penalties and not just constitute a sponsor compliance failing.
- Plan for increased scrutiny, given the Home Office’s ability to revoke licences for right to work failures
- Stay informed – further sponsor and RTW guidance is expected to explain definitively who is in scope of the new RTW checking regime.
If you’d like to sense check your approach, audit current practices, or discuss what this new regime may mean for your organisation, please get in touch.