The Legal Requirement
Every employer in the United Kingdom has a legal obligation to check that all employees have the right to work in the UK before they begin employment. This requirement is set out in the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 and enforced by the Home Office. Employers who fail to carry out the required checks — or who carry them out incorrectly — face a civil penalty of up to £20,000 for each illegal worker employed. In cases of deliberate non-compliance, criminal prosecution is also possible.
For security companies, right to work checks are not only a legal requirement but also a component of the BS7858:2019 vetting standard. They must be completed before employment commences and the evidence must be retained for the duration of employment plus two years.
What Documents Are Acceptable?
The Home Office publishes a list of acceptable documents for right to work checks, divided into two lists. List A documents establish an ongoing right to work and do not need to be rechecked. List B documents establish a time-limited right to work and must be rechecked before the document expires.
List A Documents (Ongoing Right to Work)
The most commonly used List A documents are a UK or Irish passport, a UK birth certificate combined with a National Insurance number, and a certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British citizen. EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals who have been granted settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme also have an ongoing right to work, evidenced through the online checking service.
List B Documents (Time-Limited Right to Work)
List B documents include a passport or travel document with a time-limited visa, a Biometric Residence Permit with a time-limited right to work, and a positive verification notice from the Employer Checking Service. Employees with List B documents must have their right to work rechecked before their permission to work expires.
The Online Checking Service
For most non-UK nationals, right to work is now evidenced through the Home Office's online checking service rather than through physical documents. The employee provides a share code, which the employer uses along with the employee's date of birth to access a real-time record of their immigration status. This is the only way to verify the right to work of EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals who have been granted status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
It is important to note that employers cannot insist on seeing physical documents from individuals who have a digital immigration status. Doing so may constitute unlawful discrimination.
How to Conduct a Manual Document Check
When checking physical documents, employers must follow three steps. First, the document must be obtained from the employee — it cannot be a copy. Second, the employer must check that the document is genuine, belongs to the person presenting it, and permits them to do the work in question. Third, a clear copy of the document must be made and retained, along with a record of the date on which the check was carried out.
The copy must be clear enough to show all the relevant information — including the photograph, the document number, and the expiry date where applicable. A blurry photocopy is not sufficient.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The most common right to work check mistakes made by security companies include accepting documents that are not on the Home Office's list of acceptable documents, failing to check that the document belongs to the person presenting it, not retaining copies of documents, and failing to recheck time-limited documents before they expire. Each of these mistakes can invalidate the statutory excuse that a correct check would have provided, leaving the employer fully exposed to civil penalties.
Managing Right to Work Checks at Scale
For a security company with a large and frequently changing workforce, managing right to work checks manually is a significant administrative challenge. Keeping track of which employees have time-limited documents, when those documents expire, and whether rechecks have been completed requires a systematic approach.
WFC Verify automates this process by tracking the expiry dates of all right to work documents and sending automated alerts when a recheck is due. The platform stores copies of all documents securely and maintains a complete audit trail of when each check was carried out and by whom. In the event of a Home Office inspection, you can demonstrate compliance for every employee in seconds.