Your subcontractors are in scope from 1 October — but only the new ones

Yes — but only for engagements that begin on or after 1 October 2026, not the contractors already working for you.

Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 pushes the Right to Work Scheme past contracts of employment into three new categories: work under a worker’s contract, individual sub-contractors, and online matching services that charge a fee or commission for putting a service provider in front of a client. The draft code of practice (Home Office, updated 30 June 2026) defines a worker’s contract as personal service where the other party is not a client or customer of the individual’s own business — wider than the employment-law test you may already use.

The start date does the work. The draft Employer’s guide (16 July 2026) states that for these categories “a civil penalty may only be imposed where the employment commenced on or after 1 October 2026”. Your long-standing self-employed bookkeeper is not suddenly a compliance event. The one you take on in November is, and so is a re-engagement on a fresh contract. Penalty starting points are £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat breach within three years (Home Office code of practice, 13 February 2024).

What has to be on file, and for how long

Check before the work starts. For an online check, keep a PDF or HTML copy of the profile page — it carries the photo and the date the check was done. For a manual check, a clear copy of the document. Retain it for the duration of the engagement and two years after it ends, then destroy it securely. Diary a follow-up check before any time-limited permission expires.

Three workable places to hold it: a dated folder per person in the document store you already run; your HR system, if the people in scope are actually in it (usually they are not); or a collection tool that records what arrived and when — Content Snare, FileInvite and ClientLoop all timestamp submissions. None of them make the check valid. They make it findable two years later.

Do this on Monday: list everyone who does work for you but is not on payroll. That list is the new scope. Guidance was still in draft when this was checked on 10 September 2026, and this is not legal advice.