Never Miss a Right to Work Follow-Up Check

A right to work check is a legal obligation on UK employers to verify that every employee has the right to work in the UK before they start employment. Employers must obtain original documents from List A (permanent right to work) or List B (time-limited right to work), verify they are genuine, and keep dated copies. Failure to conduct proper checks removes the employer's statutory excuse defence if the Home Office discovers an illegal worker.

The civil penalty for employing an illegal worker is up to £45,000 per worker for a first offence and up to £60,000 for repeat offences (rates increased in February 2024). Criminal prosecution can result in up to 5 years imprisonment. These penalties apply per illegal worker — a small employer with 3 non-compliant staff faces up to £135,000 in fines.

When an employee's right to work expires, employers have a 28-day statutory excuse period. During these 28 days, the employer is not liable for a civil penalty even though the employee technically lacks current right to work. The employer must conduct a follow-up check before the 28 days expire. If no follow-up check is done, the statutory excuse is lost and the employer becomes liable.

Yes. Right to work checks must be conducted on every employee, including British citizens. Checking only foreign nationals is discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010 and could result in a discrimination claim. The process is simpler for British citizens (a UK passport is sufficient) but the check itself is mandatory for all hires.

The employee generates a share code from the gov.uk online right to work service. The employer then enters the share code and the employee's date of birth on the gov.uk online right to work checking service to verify their right to work status. The employer must save or print the result page as their record. Share codes expire after 90 days if unused.

Acceptable documents are split into List A (permanent right) and List B (time-limited right). List A includes a UK or Irish passport, certificate of naturalisation, and permanent residence cards. List B includes passports with visa stamps, Biometric Residence Permits (though BRPs expired 31 Dec 2024 — check eVisa status instead), and immigration status documents with an expiry date.

The full tracking platform — with employee registers, automated expiry reminders, and audit trails — will be priced for micro-employers, not enterprise budgets. In the meantime, our penalty risk calculator, document checker, and follow-up timeline calculator are free to use right now — no signup required. Join the waitlist for early-bird pricing.

RTWcomply is built by Crocker Digital Ltd (Company No. 17008789), a UK software company. We identified that micro-employers in high-enforcement sectors have no affordable tool for ongoing RTW compliance tracking. Every feature is built around Home Office requirements and real penalty data.

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