UK right-to-work checks extend beyond employment contracts from 1 October 2026
From 1 October 2026, UK right-to-work checks extend beyond employees for the first time. Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 – commenced by the Commencement No. 4 Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/683) – widens the illegal-working rules beyond contracts of employment. The commencement regulations describe section 48 as the “extension of prohibition on employment to other working arrangements”; the categories understood to be caught are people engaged under a worker’s contract, individual sub-contractors, and workers engaged through an online matching service or platform, which would pull gig-economy and freelance engagements into a checking regime that previously applied only to employees. Check the Home Office guidance for the definitive scope before acting on it — the precise categories are what will determine whether a given freelance arrangement is covered. The civil penalty for getting it wrong is up to £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach within three years, and a mandatory digital identity verification step – using a government-certified provider – starts on the same day.
Genuinely self-employed people contracting directly with an end client for that client’s own use are not the target: liability arises where a business supplies labour or services onward in a chain, or operates a platform that matches workers to work.
Why this matters
This changes how UK companies engage freelancers and contractors, including remote ones working from elsewhere in Europe. A UK business that brings you in as an individual contractor – or a platform that places you – will now be expected to run a right-to-work check and, in many cases, a certified digital identity check. Freelancers who work with UK clients should expect to be asked for documentation and identity verification they were not asked for before, and factor that into onboarding. For companies building freelance benches, it is a new compliance step to design in rather than discover late.
Context
The measure is part of a broader UK tightening on illegal working, and it lands alongside separate reforms to flexible working and employment-tribunal time limits. For remote workers and the companies that hire them, see our guide to companies that hire freelancers in Europe and, for the employer-side view of UK cross-border work, working in Spain for a UK employer.
What to watch
The changes commence on 1 October 2026, with updated statutory Codes of Practice and the digital-identity-verification requirement taking effect at the same time. Anyone engaging or working through UK platforms should confirm what checks a given client or platform now requires.