right to work checks individual subcontractors 2026

Direct answer. From 1 October 2026, an organisation that directly engages an individual subcontractor within the UK Right to Work Scheme may need to carry out a prescribed right to work check before that individual starts to establish a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. The word *self-employed* does not settle the issue. The final Home Office guide asks businesses to examine the real contractual and operating arrangement. An independent business supplying a service directly to a customer may fall outside the scheme; a platform or company engaging an individual personally to perform work may be the “employer” for this purpose. Where an organisation buys a service through another business, a different extended-liability analysis may be needed. Home Office final employer guide, 1 October 2026, pages 12–16 and 19.

This article is for UK businesses that directly contract with self-employed individuals, labour platforms and teams onboarding a mixed workforce. It explains the classification and check workflow. It cannot determine whether a specific contract is in scope or provide legal advice.

What changed, and when?

Previously the civil-penalty right to work scheme was centred on a traditional employee. The 2026 legislation and final guidance extend the scheme to people engaged under a worker's contract, as an individual subcontractor and through an online matching service in the circumstances described by the Home Office. For these newer categories, the guide says a civil penalty may be imposed where the engagement commenced on or after 1 October 2026. Contractual arrangements relevant to extended liability also have their own 1 October commencement rule. Do not retroactively describe every earlier contractor engagement as subject to the new statutory check duty. Final guide, pages 12–14.

This is a right to work scheme definition. It does not, by itself, decide employment status for tax, employment rights, holiday pay or IR35. One business may need several distinct analyses for the same worker. Keep the right to work decision tied to the Home Office's test, the actual work and the dates.

A practical scope decision, before asking for documents

Map the relationship in five questions:

1. Who contracts with the individual? Identify the actual legal person engaging and paying them, not merely the site they attend.
2. Does the individual personally perform the work? Examine whether the contract and practice are primarily for that person's labour or for an independently delivered service or outcome.
3. Is this an independent business? Look at whether the individual offers services to clients in their own name or company, how they acquire work, and whether the buyer is purchasing a service from that independent business.
4. Is there an intermediary or platform? Identify whether it engages the individual to perform work or merely connects an independent provider with a customer. The exact platform model matters.
5. Can someone be substituted? Identify who may send a substitute, who authorises that person and who conducts a prescribed check before they work.

The Home Office says no single factor is decisive. Contract labels such as “freelancer,” “consultant,” “independent contractor” or “self-employed” do not override how the arrangement operates. Its examples include a delivery platform engaging an individual paid by delivery as an in-scope individual subcontractor. It contrasts this with a plumber independently advertising to multiple customers who repairs a household tap, and a designer supplying a defined project through their own personal service company: in those examples the customer does not conduct the direct right to work check. They are examples, not blanket exemptions for all plumbers or personal service companies. Final guide, pages 12–16.

If the chain is complex, record the facts and obtain legal review. Do not demand immigration documents from everyone called a contractor as a substitute for deciding whether your organisation is the statutory employer. Nor should you skip a check just because your procurement system records the person as a supplier.

Identify the party responsible for the direct check

The party with the direct contractual relationship with the individual is generally responsible for the prescribed right to work check under the direct-engagement part of the scheme. If a labour provider engages the worker and supplies them to a customer, the labour provider's role differs from the customer's. The customer may need to examine upstream contractual extended liability, but that is not the same thing as the direct check duty. Conversely, where your business directly engages the individual subcontractor, asking a customer or a worker to “sort out their own right to work” is not a prescribed employer process. Final guide, pages 12–14 and 48–50.

Document who made the scope decision, who conducts the check, who verifies the person attending, who stores evidence and who handles follow-up. These are operational assignments; they do not transfer legal responsibility by themselves.

Perform one prescribed route before work starts

The final Home Office guide lists three routes for a directly engaged individual: a manual check of prescribed original documents, a Home Office online check, or a check using a registered Right to Work Digital Verification Service provider (RtW DVSP) when the route and evidence are eligible. The employer must offer a reasonable opportunity to use an available prescribed method and must not discriminate by assuming immigration status from nationality, accent or appearance. The correct route depends on the person's evidence and status, not whether they are paid on payroll. Final guide, pages 18–20.

Manual documents. Obtain originals from the appropriate Home Office List A or B; inspect them in your possession, check identity and any restrictions, then copy and record the date in the prescribed way. A screenshot or video image of a physical passport is generally not a manual document check. The guide contains a narrow rule for digital evidence of name and National Insurance number used with another acceptable document; do not turn that exception into permission to accept scanned passports. Final guide, pages 20–23.

Home Office online. Where the person has an eVisa, use the official employer service and their share code and date of birth. View the profile yourself, match its photograph to the individual, confirm the permitted work and restrictions, and retain the dated profile page. A worker's screenshot of their status is not a substitute for the employer service. The Complys share-code guide is a related route explanation, but use the official service to perform the check. Home Office checklist, updated 1 October 2026.

Registered digital provider. A registered RtW DVSP may complete the specified digital identity element for eligible documents, including certain British and Irish passports and passport cards. The October 2026 final guide permits some documents up to six months past expiry where the chip is successfully passively authenticated, but a clipped/cancelled passport is not eligible; providers may differ in what they can support. The employer must review the provider's output, match the person and retain required evidence. Complys is not such a registered provider. See the existing digital right to work guide, which itself needs updating from the final Home Office guidance before publication or prominent cross-linking. Final guide, pages 30–34.

Where the person cannot evidence status by an available prescribed route, the Employer Checking Service may be appropriate in specific circumstances such as an outstanding in-time application, administrative review or appeal. Do not invent a workaround or let work start on the assumption that a pending application is enough. Follow the final guide on when a Positive Verification Notice is required and how long it lasts. Final guide, pages 35–38.

Check the work, not only the identity

A genuine document or digital output is insufficient if it does not allow the specific work offered. Check hours, role, sponsor or other relevant restrictions displayed by the prescribed route. Match the photograph and biographic details to the person who will actually perform the assignment, in person, on a video call or using an eligible registered DVSP route where applicable. A site manager should not assume that a supplier profile, induction record or safety card is a Home Office check. Those may support site control, but they answer different questions. Final guide, pages 20, 25–26 and 31–33.

Consider a subcontractor who presents a Home Office profile permitting a specified occupation for limited hours. The onboarding decision must account for those conditions in the actual contract and schedule, not merely save the profile and tick “verified.” If the hours or task change, reassess the permission and obtain advice where needed.

Record the check and plan any follow-up

For an in-scope direct engagement, retain the required check evidence and date according to the route, securely, for the duration of employment under the scheme and two years afterwards, then destroy it securely. If permission is time-limited, note the appropriate follow-up trigger. These are statutory records; a shared folder of undated images may not establish the excuse. The Home Office checklist specifies the evidence for each route, including the DVSP output fields and any facial-comparison record where used. The existing Complys record-keeping guide covers the storage task, subject to final 2026 whole-page refresh.

Do not assume that every contractor document should be kept forever because the relationship may recur. Define the start and end of each relevant engagement, check whether a follow-up is needed and apply the official retention rule to the legal arrangement. Personal data should have controlled access and a deletion plan.

When a substitute appears

If a contract allows the individual to send another person to do the work, establish who approves that substitute and who checks them before they work. The final guidance has specific substitution controls for an extended-liability statutory excuse: the check cannot simply be delegated to the individual choosing a substitute, and the actual person doing the work must match the checked identity. If substitution is forbidden but occurs anyway, investigate the breach and any impersonation. Record who attended which assignment. A paper clause with no entrance or assignment control is unlikely to describe reality. Final guide, pages 52–54.

Two common scenarios

Delivery platform. A platform signs up an individual who accepts jobs through an app and is paid for each delivery. The Home Office gives this as an example in which the platform is the statutory employer and must check the individual. Calling the person “self-employed” in platform terms does not eliminate the scheme. If the platform permits another person to perform deliveries, its substitution process needs its own controls.

Independent trade business. A homeowner hires a plumber who markets and performs services as an independent business for multiple customers. The Home Office uses this as an out-of-scope example for the customer. A construction business contracting through several labour providers is different again: map the chain and ask whether direct engagement or extended-liability requirements apply. Do not generalise one example to every construction subcontractor. Final guide, examples 3 and 5 and section 3.

Mistakes to avoid

• Treating every independent business and every individual worker as the same category.
• Treating the invoice label or tax status as the Home Office answer.
• Applying October 2026 direct-engagement liability retrospectively to every pre-commencement arrangement.
• Assuming a customer of a supplier always has the direct check duty, rather than assessing direct and extended liability separately.
• Letting the person work before a prescribed route is complete.
• Accepting a share-code screenshot without viewing the official employer service.
• Assuming an identity card, DBS result, CSCS card or site induction establishes immigration permission.
• Saving evidence without the date, the route output, the actual person match or any applicable follow-up.
• Describing Complys or an ordinary onboarding app as a registered DVSP.

Where Complys fits

Complys Right to Work compliance software is positioned as a worker-record, evidence and follow-up aid. It does not perform the Home Office check, query a share code, verify immigration status or create the statutory excuse for you. For a mixed workforce, assess whether a record system helps assign the check owner, keep the dated outcome with the individual and surface follow-up action; verify each workflow in the current implementation before relying on it. If your organisation is upstream of another employer rather than directly engaging the person, use the separate extended-liability written-statement guide to define the different assurance task. That new link is a proposed route until Claude integrates it; do not publish this link before both routes exist.

Next step: take one real subcontractor arrangement, draw the contract chain and record why the individual is or is not within the direct check duty. If it is in scope, identify the prescribed route and complete it before the next start date. If it is a supplier chain, review the upstream requirements separately. Seek advice where the arrangement is ambiguous.

Primary sources

• Home Office, final Employer's guide to right to work checks: 1 October 2026, particularly pages 12–23, 30–38 and 42–55 of the final PDF.
• Home Office, Employers' right to work checklist, updated 1 October 2026.

Reviewed 4 October 2026. General UK guidance; classification and statutory excuse turn on the particular arrangement and prescribed check.