The future of Right to Work: why flexible hiring ecosystems need to prepare

By Sarah Croft | April 30, 2026 | News, Right to Work

Flexible work is now a key element of how the UK labour market operates in many sectors. From logistics to construction, care to hospitality, organisations rely on gig workers and multi‑layered subcontracting networks to deliver services and keep things running.

But Right to Work (RtW) legislation was built for a more ‘traditional’ world where employers hired employees directly.

That’s why, over the last year, the Home Office has started to signal changes. Alongside increased enforcement activity, it has now published a draft Code of Practice on avoiding unlawful discrimination while preventing illegal working and consulted on proposals that would modernise RtW rules to reflect the way work really happens today.

What’s being proposed?

Current Home Office thinking points in two connected directions:

• First, the draft Code of Practice focuses on how employers should carry out checks – consistently and without unlawful discrimination – across their workforce.
• Second, consultation documents and ministerial comments indicate an intention to broaden the scope of the Right to Work regime so that checks are no longer confined to traditional direct employees, but also cover many modern “worker” relationships.

In broad terms, that extension is expected to capture:

• People engaged as ad‑hoc or flexible workers, including many zero‑hours arrangements
• Individual subcontractors, such as construction workers
• Digital or online platforms that match people to paid work

Put simply, the direction of travel is towards a world where, if someone is carrying out work on behalf of a named organisation – even through intermediaries – their Right to Work needs to be verified and you need to be able to evidence that check.

Timings and final details are not yet fixed. The Code is in draft and the wider proposals remain subject to consultation. However, the Home Office has already indicated that any significant extension of the statutory regime is unlikely to take effect before 1 October 2026, giving employers some time to prepare – but also making it clear that change is coming.

Why does it matter, and what operational changes follow?

It is widely understood that the Home Office is increasing enforcement against illegal working. However, for many businesses, the greater impact will come from the operational shift. Three areas stand out:

• Due diligence across the supply chain will broaden.Organisations will need clear understanding of their entire workforce, including those workers not directly on their payroll, and consider how to evidence RtW checks at each stage.
• Onboarding flows will need redesign.Gig and zero‑hours hiring happens at pace. If checks sit in a manual back‑office process, the risk of delay and error rises sharply. Businesses will need to consider consistent, easy‑to‑deliver processes across their ecosystem that still align with the non‑discrimination principles in the new Code.
• Audit trails become essential.RtW checks must be consistent, centrally recorded and easy to retrieve across the whole labour chain, and may move beyond HR into broader areas of operations and procurement. For many businesses, that will require stronger systems than they have today.

What are the potential risks?

If the proposed changes come into force, civil and criminal liability would be extended and a failure to carry out checks, or to prevent illegal working, could expose a business to the same penalties that currently apply to direct employers. This includes fines of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, reputational damage and, in serious cases, prosecution.

But the risk picture goes wider than fines alone:

• Scaled compliance exposure: in high‑volume flexible hiring, even a small error rate could quickly translate into significant numbers.
• Operational disruption: if RtW check processes slow onboarding, organisations could miss shifts, delay delivery or fail to meet customer SLAs.
• Reputational damage: even if a failure happens deep in the supply chain, the spotlight will be turned onto the main contractor, particularly if there are questions about unequal or inconsistent treatment of different groups.

Why a digital-first approach is essential

Organisations engaging zero‑hours workers, subcontractors or gig workers often share the same hiring realities: fast onboarding, high churn and short engagements. Those conditions make manual RtW processes difficult to sustain – and make it harder to apply checks fairly and consistently in line with the draft Code.

A digital‑first RtW approach, such as that provided by TrustID, is no longer a nice‑to‑have. It is the only scalable way to stay compliant without compromising hiring speed, worker experience or fairness.

The TrustID service enables:

• Near‑instant eligibility verification
• A consistent process regardless of hiring route
• Simple reporting, evidence retention and audit readiness
• A smoother, lower‑friction worker journey, with the same core steps for everyone

What to do next

Even before final guidance is issued and any changes take effect, organisations can take some practical steps now to prepare their onboarding processes, protect themselves from potential risk and minimise future disruption:

• Map labour pathways.Identify every route through which individuals deliver work for your business, including indirect and subcontracted routes.
• Clarify ownership.Make RtW responsibility explicit. Be clear on who checks, who stores evidence and who triggers re‑checks for repeat engagements.
• Standardise evidence and retention.Ensure everyone responsible for checks follows the same process, uses the same methods, and records outcomes in a consistent way that aligns with the Code’s expectations on equal treatment.

Conclusion

Whilst we await the final version of the new Code of Practice and the outcome of the latest consultation, the proposed extension of the RtW regime highlights a clear direction of travel: employers need to take responsibility for making sure everyone working under your brand is legally allowed to do so – and that checks are carried out in a fair, consistent and non‑discriminatory way.

Right to Work compliance isn’t just a tick‑box statutory duty. It will increasingly become a signal that an organisation takes its social and legal responsibilities seriously in a fast‑moving, interconnected labour market. Businesses that react early, by tightening due diligence, clarifying contracts, updating policies in line with the draft Code, and embedding compliance into everyday processes, will be better placed to navigate the next phase of workforce regulation confidently and without disruption.