On 6 April 2022 the Home Office communicated to employers informing them that their ‘Employer’s Guidance’ has been updated to reflect the latest changes in the UK’s right to work legislation.
Please see below the newly published guidance and the key changes you need to be aware of:
- Current documents issued by the Home Office to a family member of an EEA or Swiss citizen granting permission for the holder to stay and work within the UK, has been removed as an acceptable document for right to work checks.
- Employees who hold a Biometric Residence Permit, Biometric Residence Card or Frontier Worker Permit will need to evidence their right to work via the Home Office online service. Manual checks of these documents are no longer permitted to demonstrate right to work.
- Manual document checks are permitted for British and Irish nationals, but employers can opt to check documents using the new Identification Document Validation technology.
Ukraine Crisis
Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the British government launched the Ukraine Family Scheme on 4 March 2022. This enables immediate and extended family members of British nationals to enter the country.
Shortly after, the Homes for Ukraine Scheme was also launched on 18 March 2022. This enables Ukrainian nationals with immediate family members to be sponsored by UK residents for at least 6 months.
Due to both of the above schemes, all successful applicants will be eligible to stay in the UK for a maximum of 3 years and will gain the right to work in the UK.
Temporary Adjustments
Due to COVID-19, there have been temporary changes put in place regarding the way you can check right to work documents. These changes will remain until 30 September 2022 and allow employers to carry out right to work checks remotely, rather than having to be face-to-face.
To carry out a temporary adjusted check, you must:
- Ask the worker to submit a scanned copy or a photo of their original documents.
- Arrange a video call with the employee and ask them to hold up their original documents to the camera so you can check them against the digital copy of the documents. You will then need to record the date you made the check and mark it as “adjusted check undertaken on [insert date] due to COVID-19”.
From 1 October 2022, employers will revert to face-to-face and physical document checks. If you require any help with DBS checks or recording right to work checks in recruitment software,
please get in touch. We can help with DBS checks and tell you more about how our recruitment software FACE-Ed is helping schools and Trusts.
