Temporary staffing gives employers flexibility. It can help businesses respond to changing workloads, cover staff shortages, manage seasonal demand and access skills without making every position permanent. However, that flexibility does not mean that all legal and compliance responsibilities move to the staffing agency. One area where employers need to be particularly careful is right-to-work compliance. When a temporary worker enters your organisation through an agency, it can be tempting to assume that the agency has completed all the necessary immigration checks and that the employer therefore has nothing further to consider. In reality, employers need to understand exactly how right-to-work responsibilities apply to their particular staffing arrangements, what checks have been carried out, what evidence has been retained and whether any further action is required.
The Agency Relationship Does Not Make Compliance Disappear
Employers in the UK have a legal duty to prevent illegal working. Under the Home Office's right-to-work scheme, employers are expected to carry out the prescribed checks before employing an individual and, where a person's permission to work is time-limited, conduct the appropriate follow-up checks when required. Correctly completing the prescribed process can provide an employer with a statutory excuse against a civil penalty if the worker is subsequently found not to have the right to work.
For businesses that use temporary or agency workers, this creates an important question: who is responsible for making sure the appropriate checks have actually been completed? The answer can depend on the legal and contractual structure of the arrangement. An employment business may undertake right-to-work checks as part of supplying a worker, but employers should not simply rely on an assumption that "the agency checked them." They need to understand what the agency has checked, whether the check was completed in accordance with the prescribed requirements, what evidence is available and whether the employer itself has any obligations under the arrangement. The important point is that using an agency should create a clearer compliance process, not a blind spot.
Why Right-to-Work Checks Matter for Temporary Workers
Temporary workers can sometimes be treated differently in the minds of employers simply because their assignments are short. A worker might be coming in for a few days, several weeks or a few months, and the employer may therefore view the engagement as less significant than recruiting a permanent employee. From a compliance perspective, however, the temporary nature of an assignment does not mean that employers can ignore the legal requirements that apply to the employment or engagement arrangement. The Home Office guidance makes clear that employers must carry out the required right-to-work checks where the scheme applies, and employers should have a process for dealing with workers whose permission to work is subject to a time limit.
This becomes particularly important where a business has a large temporary workforce or regularly receives workers from several staffing providers. The more people and assignments an organisation manages, the easier it becomes for important dates, documents or changes in circumstances to get lost between departments, agencies and individual managers. A responsible employer therefore needs to know not just who is working, but also what documentation supports their right to work, when relevant checks were completed and whether any follow-up action is required.
What Happens When a Worker's Permission Is Time-Limited?
Right-to-work compliance is not necessarily a one-time exercise. Where a worker has time-limited permission to work, the employer may need to conduct a follow-up check on or before the relevant expiry date if the employment or engagement is continuing. This means that employers need a system capable of identifying workers whose immigration status requires further verification rather than relying on someone remembering an expiry date months after the original recruitment process.
Imagine an organisation that regularly uses temporary staff across several locations. A worker is supplied through an agency and completes an initial assignment successfully. The employer is satisfied with the worker's performance and extends the assignment several times. The worker continues to appear on the rota, but nobody reviews whether the original right-to-work permission was time-limited or whether a follow-up check is required. What began as a routine temporary staffing arrangement can eventually become a compliance problem simply because an important date was not properly monitored. This is why good workforce administration is not just about payroll and timesheets; it also involves maintaining appropriate compliance records and knowing when action is required.
The Financial Consequences Can Be Significant
The financial consequences of illegal working can be substantial. GOV.UK states that employers can face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker where the relevant right-to-work requirements have not been satisfied. In more serious circumstances, where an employer knowingly employs someone who does not have the right to work, criminal sanctions can also apply, including an unlimited fine and, in certain circumstances, imprisonment.
The scale of enforcement demonstrates why employers should not treat right-to-work compliance as a minor administrative issue. Government-published civil penalty records show employers receiving penalties running into tens of thousands of pounds, including individual penalties of £40,000, £45,000, £80,000 and £120,000 in published enforcement records. The financial impact can extend beyond the penalty itself. An employer may also have to deal with disruption to operations, additional administrative work, reputational consequences and the need to review recruitment and workforce processes.
Consider a business that needs additional workers during a busy period and decides to use an agency to provide temporary staff. The business assumes that because the workers have been introduced and supplied by an agency, all immigration compliance has been dealt with. Several months later, Immigration Enforcement identifies an individual who does not have the required permission to undertake the work. If the relevant checks were not properly completed or the employer cannot establish the required compliance process, the business could face a significant financial penalty. The original objective was simply to cover additional shifts, but a failure to properly manage compliance could turn that staffing decision into a much more expensive problem.
1 October 2026 Gives Employers Another Reason to Review Their Processes
The timing is particularly relevant for employers preparing for the final quarter of 2026. The Home Office published updated draft employer guidance on right-to-work checks in July 2026, with the updated guidance scheduled to come into force on 1 October 2026. The changes include provisions concerning workers engaged through certain contractual and labour-supply arrangements, making it sensible for organisations that regularly use temporary labour to review their processes and contractual relationships before the new guidance takes effect.
For employers, the practical lesson is not to wait for a compliance problem before reviewing the staffing process. Businesses should understand how their staffing partners conduct right-to-work checks, what evidence is retained, how time-limited permissions are monitored and how information is communicated when circumstances change. The objective is not necessarily to duplicate every process undertaken by the agency. Instead, it is to make sure there is no gap between what the staffing provider believes has been checked and what the employer believes has been checked.
Compliance Should Be Built into the Staffing Relationship
A strong staffing relationship should involve much more than receiving a list of available workers. It should create clarity about responsibilities from the beginning. Before engaging temporary workers, employers should understand who is responsible for the relevant right-to-work checks, what evidence is retained, how time-limited permissions are monitored, what happens when a follow-up check becomes necessary and how changes in a worker's circumstances are communicated. These questions become even more important when an organisation uses several staffing providers because different agencies may have different systems and processes for managing worker documentation.
This is where communication between the employer and staffing agency becomes particularly important. If the agency identifies an issue with a worker's right to work, there should be a clear route for escalating that information to the employer. Similarly, if the employer changes the nature, duration or conditions of an assignment, the staffing provider should have a clear mechanism for receiving relevant information. Good workforce management depends on both sides understanding what information they hold, what information they need and when they need to act on it.
Compliance Must Not Become Discrimination
There is another important consideration for employers. Right-to-work compliance should never become a justification for discriminatory recruitment or employment practices. Employers must not discriminate against individuals because of their nationality, ethnic background or assumptions about their immigration status. The appropriate right-to-work process should be applied consistently rather than requiring particular groups of workers to provide additional evidence simply because of where they come from or how they appear.
This creates an important balance for employers: prevent illegal working while avoiding unlawful discrimination. Responsible compliance is therefore not about asking more questions of people who appear "foreign" or assuming that particular nationalities require additional scrutiny. It is about having a consistent, lawful process that is applied appropriately to the workers covered by the right-to-work scheme.
What Should Employers Do Now?
For employers that regularly use temporary workers, this is a good time to review the existing process. Start by understanding the temporary workforce currently working within the organisation, including which staffing provider supplied each worker and what right-to-work process has been completed. Where workers have time-limited permission, make sure the organisation has a reliable mechanism for identifying when follow-up checks are required. It is also worth reviewing agreements and communication arrangements with staffing providers so that responsibilities are not based solely on informal assumptions.
Employers should also consider how right-to-work information fits into their wider workforce-management systems. A compliant process should not depend entirely on one HR employee remembering an important date or one site manager knowing which documents were checked months earlier. There should be a clear audit trail, appropriate record retention and a defined process for escalating issues. When responsibilities are documented and communication channels are established, it becomes much easier to identify gaps before they become costly problems.
Temporary Staffing Should Reduce Uncertainty, Not Create It
Temporary staffing can be an effective way for employers to manage fluctuating demand, respond to workforce shortages and access skills when they are needed. But flexibility works best when it is supported by clear responsibilities and good compliance processes. A staffing agency can be an important partner in recruitment and workforce management, but employers should still understand the legal framework surrounding the people working within their organisation and the specific responsibilities that apply to their arrangement.
The phrase "the agency checked it" should therefore not be the end of the conversation. The better questions are: What was checked? Who was responsible? When was it checked? What evidence was retained? Does anything need to be checked again? Those questions do not undermine the relationship between an employer and its staffing provider; they strengthen it by making responsibilities clear.
For employers, the objective should be simple: use temporary staffing to create flexibility without creating unnecessary compliance risk. The strongest staffing relationships are those in which recruitment, worker management and legal responsibilities are understood by everyone involved.
Temporary staffing gives you flexibility. Responsible workforce management protects it.
References
- GOV.UK — Employers: checking a job applicant's right to work. Home Office guidance on right-to-work checks and the statutory excuse.
- GOV.UK — Draft employer's guide to right to work checks: 16 July 2026. Updated Home Office guidance scheduled to come into force on 1 October 2026.
- GOV.UK — Employing someone who does not have the right to work in the UK. Guidance on civil and criminal penalties for illegal working.
- GOV.UK — Illegal working civil penalties for UK employers. Published Home Office enforcement data.
- GOV.UK — Code of practice for employers: avoiding unlawful discrimination while preventing illegal working. Guidance on applying right-to-work checks without unlawful discrimination.