Why every employer must check
Every employer in the UK must check that a person has the right to work here before they start. It applies to every employee, whether British or foreign, full-time or casual. An employer that does the check correctly, in the way the Home Office requires, has what the law calls a statutory excuse: if the person turns out to have no right to work, the employer is protected from a civil penalty. An employer that does not has no such protection.
The three ways to check
The first is the online check. If the person has an eVisa, they will give you a share code, which lasts 90 days. You enter it, with their date of birth, on the Home Office’s online service, which shows their status and their right to work. You compare the photograph on screen with the person, either in person or on a live video call, and keep a record of the result. People with a biometric residence permit or card, a frontier worker permit or an eVisa now prove their status this way.
The second is a manual check of original documents, used for British and Irish citizens, who have no eVisa. You must see the original, check it is genuine and belongs to the person, and take and keep a copy, with the date of the check. For British and Irish citizens, you can instead use an identity service provider using identity document validation technology.
The third is the identity service provider route, using certified digital checking for British and Irish citizens holding a valid passport.
Keeping the record
Keep the copies for as long as the person works for you and for two years after they stop. Record the date the check was made. If you are checking someone whose permission is time-limited, diarise the expiry date: you must check again before it runs out, and if you do not, your protection ends on that date.
Penalties
An employer found to be employing an illegal worker without having carried out a correct check can be fined. The civil penalty is up to £45,000 for each illegal worker for a first breach, and up to £60,000 for each worker for a repeat breach within three years. These are the amounts from the code of practice that took effect on 13 February 2024. In a first breach, if the employer reported its suspicions, cooperated and had effective systems in place, the Home Office may issue a warning notice instead of a penalty. Employing someone knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that they have no right to work is a criminal offence.
Mistakes employers make
The common errors are not seeing the original document, not taking a copy, not recording the date, accepting a document that does not fit the checklist, forgetting to repeat a check on a time-limited worker, and relying on an old-style BRP. These are all avoidable with a simple, followed procedure. We can design one for your business and audit your existing files.
