Authors:
The Home Office has updated its Employer’s Guide to Right to Work Checks and its Code of Practice on Preventing Illegal Working to include details of a new online right to work checking service.
How Does It Work?
How Does It Work?
- Employers now have the option to complete online right to work checks as well as manual ones.
- Employers can use this new online service if the employee has either:
- A biometric residence permit (BRP)
- A biometric residence card (BRC)
- Been granted pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
and chooses to share details of their right to work with their employer via Prove Your Right to Work.
- Prove Your Right to Work allows an employee with a document or status listed above to first view their own Home Office right to work record. The employee can then choose to provide their prospective or current employer with a “share code” and their date of birth.
- The employer can then use View a Job Applicant's Right to Work Details to obtain a statutory excuse, by reviewing the employee’s right to work details, checking that the photo shown is of the employee in question and retaining a clear copy of the “profile” page confirming the employee’s right to work.
- The new service is voluntary. Where an employer in unable to conduct an online right to work check, it should conduct a manual right to work check on the specified documentation listed in the Home Office’s List A or List B.
- This system has been set up, in part, to enable employers to check whether EU citizens have pre-settled or settled status from 1 January 2021. However, until then, the Home Office has confirmed that even in a no-deal scenario, EU citizens will continue to be able to evidence their right to work using a passport or national identity card. In addition, employers will not be required to carry out retrospective right to work checks on existing EU employees, only on new starters from 1 January 2021.
