Right to Work Checks in UK Construction: What Contractors and Agencies Need to Know

What Is a Right to Work Check?

A right to work check is the process an employer or agency must complete before engaging a worker — confirming that the worker is legally permitted to work in the United Kingdom. It is a legal requirement under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, and failure to carry one out correctly can result in significant civil and criminal penalties.

In the construction industry, where workers often move between sites, contractors, and agencies rapidly, right to work compliance is a practical challenge — but it is not optional. Every worker, whether British, Irish, EU, or from outside the UK, must have their right to work confirmed before they start.

Who Is Responsible for the Check?

The responsibility for carrying out right to work checks falls on the employer or agency that directly engages the worker. In construction, this typically means:

• Labour agencies (such as Trade Force UK) are responsible for checking workers they supply to contractors
• Direct-hire contractors are responsible for checking their own directly employed staff
• A principal contractor is not responsible for checking agency workers — that sits with the agency — but many do carry out their own secondary checks as a risk management measure

If you engage workers through a compliant agency, the agency should carry out the primary right to work check. You should ask your agency to confirm in writing that all workers supplied have been verified.

What Documents Are Acceptable?

List A: Unlimited right to work

These documents confirm an unlimited right to work and only need to be checked once:

• UK or Irish passport (current or expired in some cases)
• UK birth or adoption certificate plus HMRC document showing NI number
• Certificate of naturalisation or registration as a British citizen

List B: Time-limited right to work

These documents confirm a right to work that expires on a specific date. A follow-up check is required before the expiry date:

• Current passport or travel document showing leave to remain with a time limit
• Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) with limited leave to remain
• Share code from the Home Office online right to work checking service

How the Online Right to Work Check Works

For workers who have been granted digital leave to remain, the process is:

1. The worker visits the Home Office right to work checking service at gov.uk and generates a share code
2. The employer enters the share code along with the worker's date of birth at the employer portal on gov.uk
3. The system confirms whether the worker has the right to work and any time limit
4. The employer takes a screenshot or prints a copy of the confirmation and retains it as evidence

This check must be done in real time — you cannot accept a screenshot that the worker has saved themselves from a previous check.

What Are the Penalties for Getting It Wrong?

The statutory excuse — the defence that protects you from a civil penalty even if a worker is later found to have worked illegally — only applies if you carried out the check correctly before the worker started, retained the evidence, and followed up on time-limited documents before they expired.

Construction-Specific Challenges

High turnover of site workers

Construction sites can have dozens of workers starting in a short period. Each one must be checked individually before they start work. Using a compliant labour agency helps — the agency handles the checking and provides you with confirmation rather than requiring you to process each worker yourself.

Workers with time-limited documents

If a worker you have engaged holds a time-limited right to work (for example, a Biometric Residence Permit that expires in 18 months), you must record the expiry date and carry out a follow-up check before it expires. If you do not and the worker continues past expiry, you lose your statutory excuse.

Subcontractors

Right to work rules apply to employees and workers — not to subcontractors who are genuinely self-employed. However, in practice, HMRC and the Home Office look at the reality of the working relationship. If someone is working in a way that resembles employment, they may be treated as a worker for compliance purposes.

How Trade Force UK Handles Right to Work

When a worker registers with Trade Force UK, we collect and verify their right to work documents as part of the registration process. We check the documents before making any placement, and we record the type of check, the documents seen, and the expiry date for any time-limited permissions.

Contractors who hire through Trade Force UK do not need to carry out their own primary right to work check for agency workers — we have done it for them. We can confirm in writing that all workers we supply have been right-to-work verified before being placed on site.

If you have questions about our compliance process, contact us directly through the contact page.

For Workers: What to Have Ready

When registering with Trade Force UK — or applying for any construction site role — you will need to prove your right to work before you start. Here is what to have ready depending on your situation:

• British or Irish nationals: Passport, or birth certificate plus NI number confirmation from HMRC
• EU/EEA/Swiss nationals (post-Brexit): Your share code from the Home Office right to work checking service — you generate this at gov.uk
• Non-EU nationals with leave to remain: Biometric Residence Permit or your share code if your leave was granted digitally
• Students or those on Skilled Worker visas: Your BRP or digital share code, plus any employment conditions shown on your leave

Having your documents ready before registration makes the process faster. If you are unsure what applies to you, contact us and we will advise.

Related reading: CSCS Card Guide UK · UK Construction Worker Shortage · Why Contractors Need a Labour Pipeline