Right to work check meaning

Basic terms At the outset, assess whether an overage arrangement is right for the deal. Your client might be better served by agreeing a higher purchase price or entering into a conditional contract instead. Overage provisions can be intricate and costly to negotiate. If overage will apply, check that the terms reflect the buyer’s intended use of the site. the overage period (note that, from 6 April 2010, the rule against perpetuities does not apply to most commercial interests and, if no period is specified, there is a risk the agreement could be perpetual) the property that will be subject to the overage any individual units to be sold or built, making clear whether parking spaces and other ancillary areas are included within a unit for the overage calculation Include a ‘good faith’ clause, as this may help in the event of a dispute...

In this issue: Horizon scanning Immigration Cross-border, international and jurisdictional issues Recruitment Employment contract Pay Benefits Prohibited conduct protection at work Data protection and employee information TUPE and asset purchases Practice, procedure and settlement Dates for your diary Trackers Employment resources on Lexis+® LexTalk®Employment: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Horizon scanning Budget 2025—key Employment announcements and views from the market On 26 November 2025, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP, unveiled a suite of tax, labour market and regulatory reforms with major consequences for employment costs, workforce planning and HR compliance. The programme includes above‑inflation rises to the National Living Wage (NLW) and National Minimum Wage (NMW), continued freezes to income tax and National Insurance contribution (NIC) thresholds, changes to pension schemes and tax‑favoured salary sacrifice, an extension of workplace benefit exemptions, revamped labour market enforcement arrangements, and progress towards...

Kankanalapalli v Loesche Energy Systems Ltd [2026] EAT 49 What was the background? The claimant, Mr Kankanalapalli, received an offer of employment as a project manager from the respondent, Loesche Energy Systems Ltd, conditional upon 'satisfactory references', a 'right to work check', and completion of a probationary term. He accepted via email, finished onboarding paperwork, and supplied the requested details, but did not send back a signed copy of the offer. Prior to the agreed start date, the respondent rescinded the offer owing to a delay in its underpinning project. He issued a breach of contract claim in the Employment Tribunal, asserting that the respondent ended the contract without notice. The respondent contended that no binding contract had come into being because the conditions were unmet, or, in the alternative, that reasonable notice had been given. The Employment Tribunal rejected the claim, finding the conditions were precedent and that no contract existed; in the alternative, it determined that no notice was required on the particular facts presented...

How will the right to work regime be extended? Under the present right to work regime, employers are obliged to carry out checks on every employee to avoid civil penalties where someone is discovered to be working unlawfully. These penalties can reach £45,000 for a first breach, rising to £60,000 for subsequent breaches. If an employer knows, or has reasonable grounds to suspect, they are employing an illegal worker, further criminal exposure may arise, potentially extending to officers and directors. For sponsor licence holders, the Home Office expects right to work checks to be completed for all workers, contractors and self-employed individuals as part of meeting sponsor obligations. BSAIA 2025, s 48 broadens this obligation so it applies to every employer, whether or not they hold a sponsor licence, and it encompasses: workers who are not employees self-employed contractors people engaged through a fee-charging online job-matching platform linking service providers with clients and customers The distinction between employees, workers and self-employed...

This Practice Note This Practice Note explores how advisers can steer the competing risks that arise in practice when an employer either omits to complete a compliant right to work check, or comes to doubt an employee’s entitlement to work. Where illegal working is suspected, several interlinked matters must be addressed, including: employment — employment law shapes the risks and liabilities flowing from an employer’s choice whether to dismiss and what steps to take if illegal working concerns emerge. Potential exposures include unfair dismissal (generally only engaging after two years’ service) and discrimination claims. For more information, see Practice Note: Illegal working: dealing with employees regulatory — an employer may face a civil penalty for employing someone who lacks the right to work. In addition, for sponsor employers, employing a person without the right to work in the UK places their sponsor licence at risk of possible revocation. See Practice Notes: Illegal workers—civil and criminal sanctions and Illegal working: dealing with a civil penalty ...

This Practice Note This Practice Note explains how employers should complete a ‘right to work check’ properly, outlining the core actions for both digital and in-person checks, the records that must be kept, and how to plan for follow-up checks. It summarises online and manual routes in parallel, highlights documentation retention duties, and advises on scheduling necessary repeat checks across the employment lifecycle. It also addresses checks for British and Irish nationals using Identity Document Validation Technology through a Digital Verification Service. A right to work check must be undertaken before employment starts, to confirm the individual is permitted to perform the role. When completed correctly, the employer gains a statutory excuse against a civil penalty. For more detail, including which categories of workers require checking, see Practice Note: Right to work checks: when and why. This Practice Note describes the process for right to work checks in line with the applicable Home Office guidance that took effect on 26 June 2025. To assess whether a past check was...

This Practice Note provides commentary on the documents that an employer may accept when undertaking a manual right to work check For details on when and why a right to work check is required, see Practice Note: Right to work checks: When and why. The UK has shifted to digital immigration status for non-British and non-Irish nationals. From 6 April 2022, employers were no longer allowed to accept or review physical Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs), Biometric Residence Cards (BRCs) or Frontier Worker Permits as proof of right to work, even if a later expiry was printed. Instead, an online check must be completed for these individuals. Those documents enabled holders to generate a share code before they were able, during 2024, to create a UK Visas & Immigration account to access their eVisas. Employers also gained the option to use Identity Document Validation Technology via an approved Identity Service Provider—now referred to as digital verification services—as an alternative to physically inspecting and copying current British and Irish...

Monitoring immigration status and preventing illegal employment Proof of right to work check Copy format (paper or electronic) Type of document Which pages have been copied? For a passport or travel document, you should include: the front cover (only where the copy was taken between 29 February 2008 and 15 May 2014); any page(s) showing the photograph, name, date of birth, biometric details, expiry date, nationality, or signature; and if the person is not British or Irish (or was an EEA or Swiss national before 1 July 2021) and their permission is endorsed in their passport, the page bearing the stamp confirming the holder’s current UK immigration status and any conditions of stay. Does that stamped page display a UK date of entry shown by an entry stamp?...

Weekly rest periods Under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998), SI 1998/1833, reg 11(1), an adult worker has a right to an unbroken rest period of at least 24 hours in each seven-day period during which they work for their employer. Alternatively, within any 14-day window, the employer can provide either two 24-hour rest periods, or one 48-hour rest period. The Health & Safety Executive is tasked with enforcing the maximum weekly working time, limits on night work and health assessments for night work, but it does not police time off, paid annual leave or rest break entitlements. These rights are instead enforced by workers through a complaint under WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833, reg 30, alleging that the employer has failed to allow the exercise of the relevant entitlement. For further detail, see the section of the Practice Note: Hours of work and working time titled ‘Weekly rest periods’. The drafting of WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833, reg 11 is couched in terms of entitlement rather than obligation; ie...

Information on right to work checks generally can be found in the following Practice Notes: Right to work checks: when and why Right to work checks: how to conduct the check Illegal workers—civil and criminal sanctions Section 15(1) of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (IANA 2006) makes it unlawful to employ an adult who is subject to immigration control where they have either: not been granted permission to enter or remain in the UK, or permission that is invalid, has expired or otherwise ceased to have effect (for example, cancelled or curtailed), or is subject to a condition barring them from taking employment For more information, see the section of Practice Note: Right to work checks: when and why entitled ‘Why’...