During the Covid-19 pandemic, temporary concessions have been in place, so that right to work checks can be performed over video calls.
The Home Office has recently announced that temporary COVID-19 adjusted right to work measures will end on 30 September 2022 (inclusive) and not 5 April 2022 as previously announced.
No further retrospective checks will be required on employees who had a COVID-19 adjusted check between 30 March 2020 and 30 September 2022 inclusive.
From 1 October 2022, employers must once again either:
- Check the applicant’s original documents; or
- Check the applicant’s right to work online, if they have provided you with a share code.
An employer will maintain a statutory defence against a civil penalty if the right to work check undertaken was carried out in the prescribed manner as set out in the Covid-19 adjusted checks guidance.
Please note the important changes to right to work checks from 6 April 2022:
- Employers must carry out an online right to work check for those who hold a biometric residence card, biometric residence permit or frontier worker permit. More detail is set out in our previous article which can be found here.
- Right to work checks – British and Irish Nationals. An employer will be able to decide whether to carry out right to work checks for British and Irish nationals either manually or to use the new IDVT technology. More detail is set out in our previous article which can be found here.