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AWR, right to work and the Conduct Regulations
Right to work check router for recruitment agencies: which check, what to keep, when to check again
Pick what the candidate holds and who employs them to get the check to do, what to keep, the follow-up date and the penalty for a missed check.
"Right to work check agency" is a question the trade body says tops its legal helpline, and the reason is that an agency is two things at once. For a temp on its own payroll it is the employer, with the employer's duty and the employer's penalty. For a permanent introduction it is not, and the duty belongs to the client. This router asks which, then asks what the candidate holds, and gives the check.
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Right to work check router: which check, what to keep, when to check again, and what a missed check costs
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The three checks
Manual check. For a British or Irish passport (current or expired) or an Irish passport card: see the original, compare the photo, copy the photo page, date and sign the copy. For a British citizen without a passport: a UK birth or adoption certificate together with an official document showing the National Insurance number, both originals. One document on its own is not a check.
Digital identity (IDVT) check. For British and Irish passport holders only, through an Identity Service Provider. The provider verifies the document and the face; you still have to satisfy yourself that the person in front of you is the person in the result.
Home Office online check. For everyone else: eVisa holders, anyone who had a BRP or BRC (the cards expired on 31 December 2024 and have had to be checked online since 6 April 2022), EU, EEA and Swiss citizens (a passport has not proved the right to work since 1 July 2021 unless the person is Irish), and anyone on a visa with an end date. The candidate gives you a share code from their UKVI account; you enter it with their date of birth on the GOV.UK service, check the photo and the permitted work, and keep the result page.
AI staff and workflows for recruitment agencies. Starting with cv screening and shortlist.See what we would set upWhat to keep and for how long
The copy, the IDSP report or the online result page, with the date of the check and the name of the person who did it. Keep it for the whole of the engagement and two years after it ends. The check has to be done before the first day; a check done in week two gives no statutory excuse for week one.
When to check again
Never, for a British or Irish passport or a settled status. Before the end date, for time-limited permission; the router prints the date to diary when you enter the expiry. For a student visa, also get the institution's term dates in writing: twenty hours a week in term time, full time in vacations, and the hours are the employer's problem, not the student's.
If the person has applied in time to extend and the decision is pending, the Employer Checking Service issues a Positive Verification Notice that covers you for six months.
The agency's two positions
You employ the temp. The statutory excuse is yours to earn and the penalty is yours to pay: up to £45,000 per worker for a first breach and up to £60,000 for a repeat, since 13 February 2024, and up to five years in prison for knowingly employing someone without the right. The check goes in the compliance file beside the AWR clock and the Key Information Document.
You introduce a perm. The client is the employer and the check is the client's, which your terms of business should say in as many words. Regulation 19 of the Conduct Regulations still requires you to confirm the candidate's identity and that they hold any qualification or authorisation the law requires for the work, and to tell the client what you confirmed. "Eligible to work in the UK" on a CV is the candidate's claim, not your confirmation; write what you saw and when. And do not hold copies of a perm candidate's documents longer than your retention policy allows: you are not their employer and the two-year rule is not yours.
AI staff and workflows for recruitment agencies. Starting with cv screening and shortlist.See what we would set upThe rules that bite
Check everyone the same way at the same stage. A rule that only checks people with foreign-sounding names is race discrimination before it is anything else. Never accept a photocopy or a photo on a phone in place of the original or the online result. And read the current edition of the employer's guide, reissued on 1 October 2026, because the list of acceptable documents and the online service change more often than most agencies' checklists do.
An AI Compliance Clerk set up by Overlyft 
runs this router on every candidate at the offer stage, diaries the follow-up checks, and keeps the retention clock. This is general information, not legal or immigration advice.
Short answers from this page
Which right-to-work check does a recruitment agency need to do?
For a British or Irish passport, a manual check or a digital check through an identity service provider, done once. For an eVisa, an EU passport holder or anyone with time-limited permission, the Home Office online check with a share code, with the result page kept until two years after the engagement ends and a follow-up check before the permission expires.
Source: Home Office employer's guide to right to work checks
What is the fine for a missed right-to-work check?
Since 13 February 2024, up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and up to £60,000 for a repeat breach. A correctly done and recorded check gives a statutory excuse even if the worker turns out not to have the right to work, which is why the record matters as much as the check.
Source: Home Office civil penalty code of practice
Where this comes from: Home Office "Right to work checks: an employer's guide" (edition dated 1 October 2026, PDF not read in this pass), GOV.UK "Penalties for employing illegal workers" (read 2026-10-01: up to £60,000 per worker, 5 years for knowing employment), penalty tiers from the February 2024 increase as widely reported; Conduct Regulations 2003 reg 19. Tested in headless Edge 2026-10-01.
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