Right to work check: done before the first shift, or it does not protect you

A right to work check is the employer’s verification that a person is legally permitted to do the job on offer. In the UK it is what gives an employer a statutory excuse against a civil penalty if an employee later turns out not to have permission — and the excuse depends entirely on the check having been done properly, before employment began, and evidenced.

The point worth internalising is that the excuse is procedural. An employer who genuinely believed someone had the right to work, but cannot show a compliant check, is in the same position as one who never asked. Getting the record right is not administration around the decision; it is the protection itself.

The three ways a right to work check is done

• Manual check: original documents from the prescribed lists, seen in the person’s presence, checked for validity and consistency, then copied and dated.
• Digital identity verification: for holders of certain passports, via a certified identity service provider, with the output retained.
• Online check using a share code: for those with an eVisa or digital status, verified against the government service — the employer must generate the result themselves, not accept a screenshot.

The share code route causes most of the confusion. A code supplied by the candidate is not the check; it is the input. The employer enters it with the person’s date of birth, obtains the profile, confirms the photograph matches, and keeps the result. A forwarded screenshot proves nothing about who looked at what.

What has to be recorded

1. Do the check before the person starts work — not on the first day, and not after.
2. Confirm the document or profile permits the specific work being offered, including any hour restrictions.
3. Record the date the check was made, and keep it clear and unaltered.
4. Keep a copy of what you saw in a format that cannot be edited, for the duration of employment plus two years.
5. Diary any expiry date and repeat the check before it passes, where permission is time-limited.
6. Apply the same process to every hire, in the same order, and record that you did.

Checking only people who look or sound foreign is discrimination, and it is also worse compliance: the excuse depends on a consistent process. Check everyone, in the same way, and let the record show it.

Employers who sponsor workers take on continuing duties beyond the initial check. Sponsor licence guidance sets out the record keeping and reporting that must be maintained for every sponsored employee.

The follow-up nobody diarises

Time-limited permission is where good employers still fail. The initial check is done carefully; the expiry date lands two years later, by which time the recruiter has moved on and the record sits in a folder nobody opens. A repeat check performed after expiry does not restore the excuse for the intervening period.

The fix is not vigilance, it is a diary entry attached to the record at the moment the check is made. Ettex Records keeps the check, the evidence and the expiry date as one item with a reminder against it, so the follow-up exists as a scheduled obligation rather than as something a person is supposed to remember. Fitting the check into the employee onboarding checklist keeps it before day one rather than after it.