Right to Work Checks for Hospitality Staff: The Process and the Penalties

Right to work checks are not optional and they are not a formality. In a hospitality sector that employs large numbers of overseas workers and where staffing decisions are sometimes made at short notice, the risk of onboarding someone without completing the check correctly is real. The penalties are significant and there is no defence based on ignorance or operational pressure.

This guide tells you what the check must involve, when it must be done, and what happens if you get it wrong.

Why this matters in hospitality

The hospitality sector employs a higher proportion of non-UK nationals than most other parts of the economy. Workers from EU countries, many of whom established their right to work in the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme, make up a significant part of the workforce in restaurants, hotels and food service businesses across the country.

Since the end of the Brexit transition period, EU nationals no longer have an automatic right to work in the UK unless they held Settled or Pre-Settled Status under the EU Settlement Scheme or have a subsequent immigration status. Many employers in hospitality are still encountering situations where a worker's documents appear superficially familiar but their actual right to work status is different from what it would have been before 2021.

High turnover, urgent staffing needs, and the practical challenge of managing onboarding alongside running a busy service operation create the conditions in which checks are skipped or delayed. That is precisely the pattern the civil penalty regime is designed to deter.

The step-by-step process: manual document checks

Step one: ask the prospective employee for their documents before they start. The timing requirement is strict. The check must happen before the first day of work. Schedule document verification as part of the offer and acceptance process, not as something to sort out in the first week.

Step two: check the documents in the presence of the holder. You cannot carry out a valid check on photocopies or photographs sent by email. You must examine the original documents in person, or by video call in the cases where the Home Office permits a remote check.

Step three: check that the documents are genuine and belong to the person presenting them. Look at the photograph and confirm it matches the person in front of you. Check that the dates are consistent. Look for signs of tampering. You are not expected to be a document fraud expert, but you are expected to apply reasonable scrutiny.

Step four: make a copy and record the date. Take a clear photocopy or photograph of every document checked. Record the date on which you carried out the check. Keep the copy securely, in a way that can be retrieved if the Home Office requests it.

The documents you can accept are set out in List A and List B in the Home Office Employer's Guide to Right to Work Checks, available on gov.uk. List A documents confirm an indefinite right to work. List B documents confirm a time-limited right to work and require a follow-up check. Accepting only List A documents is the simplest approach where the applicant holds one.

Online checks for non-UK nationals

For non-British and non-Irish nationals who have a Biometric Residence Permit, a Biometric Residence Card, a Frontier Worker Permit or a status confirmed through the EU Settlement Scheme, the right to work check is carried out online through the Home Office Employer Checking Service.

The employee is given a share code, which they generate through the UK Visas and Immigration online service. You enter the share code and the employee's date of birth into the Home Office checking portal. The portal returns a result confirming whether the person has the right to work and, where applicable, until what date.

You must save a record of the online check result. A screenshot or printout of the online result, with the date on which you carried out the check, is the record you need.

For British and Irish citizens who have a valid passport or Irish passport card, a manual document check is the standard route. The online service does not cover British and Irish nationals.

The penalties

Civil penalty. If an employee is found to be working without the right to work in the UK, and you cannot demonstrate that you carried out a valid right to work check before they started, you face a civil penalty from the Home Office. From February 2024, the maximum civil penalty is:

• →£45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach of the scheme
• →£60,000 per illegal worker for repeat breaches where the employer has received a civil penalty in the preceding three years

The penalty applies per worker. If three members of staff are found to be working without the right to work and no valid checks were carried out for any of them, the exposure is up to three times the per-worker maximum.

Statutory excuse. If you carried out the check correctly, made a copy of the documents, and recorded the date, you have a statutory excuse against the civil penalty even if the documents turned out to be fraudulent or the worker's circumstances changed after the check. The statutory excuse does not protect you if you had actual knowledge that the person did not have the right to work.

Criminal offence. Knowingly employing someone without the right to work, or having reasonable cause to believe they did not have the right to work, is a criminal offence under section 21 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. It carries an unlimited fine and up to five years' imprisonment. This is separate from the civil penalty regime.

Repeat checks

If the initial right to work check was based on a List B document with a time-limited right to work, you must carry out a follow-up check before the document expires.

Diarise the expiry date at the time you carry out the initial check. A reminder should be set for at least one month before expiry, to allow time to obtain updated documents. If the worker's right to work is not renewed and they continue to work, you lose your statutory excuse from the date of expiry.

For workers confirmed through the EU Settlement Scheme with Pre-Settled Status, Pre-Settled Status has a time limit. Set a diarised reminder to recheck before the status expires.

Related guides

• →Employment contracts and written particulars for hospitality employers: the complete guide
• →New starter contract checklist for restaurants, pubs and cafes
• →Hiring staff in 2026: what employers must know
• →Written statement of employment particulars