Right to Work checks for temporary event staff in the UK

Information current as at 29 August 2026. This guide provides general operational information and is not legal advice.

Event staffing runs on temporary and casual workers: big pools, short engagements, people joining days before a busy weekend. That is exactly the environment where right to work compliance goes wrong — not because operators do not care, but because checks done at speed, by different coordinators, across hundreds of workers, are easy to do inconsistently. And the stakes are not small: employing someone without the right to work can mean a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per worker, and knowingly doing so is a criminal offence.

This guide covers what the rules require today, what is already fixed in law to change on 1 October 2026, and how to run checks operationally across a casual pool without heroics.

Who must check, today

Under the current Home Office employer’s guide, the duty to check applies to employers taking someone on under a contract of employment, service or apprenticeship — written or oral. For a staffing business, that typically means: if you employ the workers you supply, the statutory duty sits with you, not with the venue or caterer you supply them to. Where workers are not your employees, the current guidance still recommends checking — the Home Office puts it plainly that there are compelling reasons to verify the right to work of anyone you use or supply.

Getting the check right earns the employer a statutory excuse — protection from the civil penalty even if the worker later turns out not to have the right to work. No compliant check, no excuse.

The three ways to run a compliant check

1. Manual document check

Obtain original documents from the Home Office’s acceptable lists, check them in the person’s presence (in person or on a live video call, holding the originals), satisfy yourself they are genuine and that the person in front of you matches the photograph and date of birth, and keep clear, unalterable copies with the date of the check.

2. Home Office online check with a share code

For workers with digital immigration status, ask for their share code and date of birth and run the check on the official service — gov.uk/view-right-to-work. British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so this route does not apply to them. Only the official service counts — no other portal establishes the excuse.

3. Digital identity check via an IDSP

For British and Irish citizens with a valid passport (or Irish passport card), employers may use a certified Identity Service Provider using Identity Document Validation Technology instead of a manual check. The imposter check remains yours: you must still satisfy yourself the person presenting for work matches the verified identity.

Retention and follow-up checks

• Keep the evidence for the whole period of employment plus two years after it ends — copies that cannot be altered, plus the date the check was made.
• Diary the expiry. A worker with time-limited permission gives you a time-limited excuse: a follow-up check is required when their permission is due to expire. Where the worker has an in-time application or appeal outstanding, current guidance provides a further grace period of up to 28 calendar days pending verification.
• Students working limited hours in term time need an extra record: their academic term and vacation dates.

The penalty scale makes the discipline worth it: since 13 February 2024, the maximum civil penalty has been £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for repeat breaches.

What changes on 1 October 2026

This part matters for event staffing specifically, so it is worth stating precisely what is settled and what is not.

Settled: section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 has been enacted, and a made commencement order — SI 2026/683 — brings it into force on 1 October 2026. From that date, the right to work regime extends beyond contracts of employment to cover people engaged under a worker’s contract, individual sub-contractors, and arrangements made through online matching services, together with a new “extended liability” that can reach beyond the direct employer in some labour-supply chains. The new-scope duties apply to engagements commencing on or after 1 October 2026, not retrospectively.

Not yet settled: the operational detail. The Home Office published an updated employer’s guide on 16 July 2026 and an updated code of practice on 30 June 2026 covering these changes, but both are expressly marked draft at the time of writing. Under that draft guidance, a hospitality staffing example makes the employment business — not the bar, restaurant or venue — responsible for the check on the temporary workers it engages and supplies; and extended liability is framed narrowly, not as a general transfer of responsibility to whoever is nearest. Treat those mechanics as the direction of travel, and re-check the final published guidance before relying on the detail.

Running this across a casual pool

The legal framework is the easy half; the hard half is operating it across a few hundred casuals with expiry dates, re-checks and staff who joined in a hurry last August. What works:

• Collect right to work evidence during onboarding document collection, before the first shift is ever offered — not at the venue door.
• Store the evidence, the check date and the expiry against the worker, in one place a manager can audit.
• Let the system chase expiries. With Right to Work document tracking, Keruja stores the documents, reminds before expiry, and can block shift assignment for staff whose required documents are missing or expired — so a lapsed permission surfaces as a staffing warning, not a penalty letter. Keruja tracks your checks and their evidence; the checks themselves remain yours to carry out through the official routes above.
• Review the register before peak season, when there is still time to fix gaps calmly.

Sources

• Employer’s guide to right to work checks — GOV.UK (in-force guide of 26 June 2025; draft update of 16 July 2026)
• Code of practice on preventing illegal working — GOV.UK
• Check a job applicant’s right to work — GOV.UK
• View a job applicant’s right to work details — GOV.UK
• Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 and Commencement No. 4 Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/683)

Information current as at 29 August 2026. This guide provides general operational information and is not legal advice — for decisions about specific workers or contractual arrangements, take advice from an immigration specialist.