Right To Work Checks Change From 1 July 2021

• Published date: 06 July 2021
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Immigration, Employee Rights/ Labour Relations, General Immigration
• Law Firm: Walker Morris
• Author: Shabana Muneer

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On 30 June 2021, the Brexit grace period came to an end and the deadline for eligible European nationals to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) has now passed. EEA nationals now require valid permission to live and work in the UK and must be able to provide evidence of this in the same way as other overseas nationals.

As a result, the Home Office has published new guidance on right to work checks which came into effect on 1 July 2021, and must be followed by all employers from this date.

What's new?

Employers must continue to carry out right to work checks before employees start work - the general requirements to obtain, check, copy and retain documents have not changed. Some of the key changes can be seen in List A and List B, which are found at Annex B to the latest version of the Home Office's guidance on right to work checks. List A sets out documents which demonstrate the right to work for the duration of employment and do not require a repeat check. List B documents, on the other hand, will require a repeat check because the individual's right to work in the UK has a time limit on it, or an application is pending.

Points to note include:

• Perhaps most importantly, EEA and Swiss passports/national ID cards are no longer suitable to demonstrate the right to work in the UK. Instead, evidence of status or pending applications under the EUSS will need to be provided.

• Ireland is the one exception to this rule, and Irish passports/ID cards have been added to List A.

• Frontier Worker Permits have been added to List B. In practice these will largely be electronic documents and require a share code to perform an online check, but physical documents may be issued in some circumstances.

• Various documents relating to family members of EEA nationals (such as permanent residence cards) have been removed from both lists - a document demonstrating pre-settled or settled status under the EUSS will be required in most cases.

Transitional measures have also been put in place until 31 December 2021 in relation to employees who were employed before 30 June 2021 but have failed to apply under the EUSS by this date. These provide employers with a process to assist such employees in obtaining status under the EUSS within 28 days without the need to terminate their employment, or to otherwise end their employment if an application...