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Guidance

Code of practice on preventing illegal working: Right to Work Scheme for employers

This code of practice sets out the prescribed checks that employers should conduct to avoid a civil penalty in the event of illegal working.

Updates to this page

From:
Home Office and Immigration Enforcement
Published:
1 July 2021
Last updated:
1 October 2026
Show all updates

  1. Removed 'draft' from the title in line with legislation change.

  2. Updated guidance with new version.

  3. Added a Welsh translation of the codes of practice for employers.

  4. Archived 'Code of practice on preventing illegal working: 6 April 2022 and the Draft code of practice on preventing illegal working: Right to Work Scheme for employers, November 2023'. Both are now out of date as the changes to the civil penalties are already in force with the new amounts.

  5. Published the code of practice on preventing illegal working: Right to Work Scheme for employers. The code comes into force from 13 February 2024.

  6. Draft code of practice on preventing illegal working: Right to Work Scheme for employers, November 2023.

  7. Added accessible version of code of practice on preventing illegal working, in force from 6 April 2022.

  8. Added code of practice on preventing illegal working, in force from 6 April 2022.

  9. Added draft code of practice on preventing illegal working, March 2022.

  10. Accessible HTML version of 'Code of practice on preventing illegal working, 1 July 2021' added.

  11. First published.

Documents

Code of practice on preventing illegal working: Right to Work Scheme for employers: 1 October 2026

PDF, 431 KB, 37 pages

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Details

Employers have a key role to play in preventing illegal working in the UK. They do this by carrying out right to work checks on people before employing them, to make sure they are allowed to do the work in question.

This code of practice sets out the prescribed checks that employers should conduct to avoid a civil penalty in the event of illegal working and the factors that the Home Office takes into account when determining the amount of any penalty issued.

Previous versions of the code of practice are on the National Archives website.

We are aware of accessibility issues with these publications. We are working to fix these.

Read more about our accessible documents policy

We’re in the process of updating the Welsh translation of this guide.

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