From 1 October, the right to work rules reach further than most finance teams realise. They now cover some people who were never on your payroll.

The Home Office has extended the scheme under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. A right to work check used to be mostly something you did for employees. It now also reaches people engaged under a worker's contract and individual sub-contractors, plus online matching services that put individuals in front of customers.

Sounds like an HR matter, doesn't it? But finance teams do bring in interim and contract cover, and whoever decides how that cover gets engaged is often the finance director or the managing director sitting next to them. The Home Office's employer's guide is still marked as a draft, and the 11 September version says it comes into force on 1 October.

Who does the right to work check when an agency supplies the cover?

The agency does. Under the guide, the employment business counts as the employer for the scheme, so the check and the penalty risk sit with it rather than with the business the person is working for. Its own example is a manufacturer taking temporary production workers from an employment business, where responsibility stays with the employment business for the whole assignment.

And if you only ever use an agency for cover, very little changes for you, by the guide's reading.

Does a contractor with a limited company need a check?

Not if they run a genuine business and contract with you directly. The guide's example is a designer who works on a project through their own personal service company, which invoices the client under its own name, and it says the client doesn't need to run a check.

But the guide is clear that the label on the contract won't settle it. It asks who arranged the work, who can replace the person, whether substitution is allowed and how the arrangement runs day to day. Someone who gets work through an intermediary or a platform without really running an independent business can still be in scope.

So the question to ask is who the person is really contracting with, not what the agreement happens to be called.

The contractor who lands on your desk

Say a managing director at a manufacturer loses her financial controller on six weeks' notice and wants cover through year end. She finds someone good, agrees a day rate and signs a short contractor agreement with the person themselves. No agency and no company in the middle.

Depending on the facts, that could be a worker's contract or an individual sub-contractor arrangement. If it is, the check is hers to do before the person starts, and the responsibility sits with her.

But only arrangements that start on or after 1 October can attract a civil penalty, so cover already running before that date isn't caught.

The penalty for getting it wrong is up to £60,000 per illegal worker, according to the guide. In serious cases there is a criminal route with up to five years in prison, and directors can be disqualified. I'd expect most employers never to get near that, but it's a poor thing to find out about from a letter.

What about finance work you outsource?

Buying a service for your own use is treated differently. The guide's example is a retailer that hires a facilities company to clean its stores, and the retailer isn't caught because the cleaning firm stays responsible for the people it employs.

I'd read an outsourced payroll bureau or bookkeeping firm the same way, as long as it uses its own staff and you're simply buying the service. But where a firm passes work on to other businesses to deliver for its own clients, the guide's extended liability rules can reach that firm.

What I'd do before the next contractor starts

Find out how the person is engaged before you look at the CV.

Ask an agency who does the check and how they keep the evidence. And with a limited company contractor, ask them to confirm in the contract that they supply the work through their own company, then read it for any right to send a substitute.

A fractional or part-time finance leader who works through their own company sits on the outside of this, by the guide's reading, provided they run a real business and contract with you directly. It is still worth a line in the engagement letter saying so, and a copy of the company details on file.

If someone will work for you personally, in their own name, run the check yourself before they start. The guide sets out a manual document check, the Home Office online service and a digital identity provider, and you should keep a copy of whatever you do.

Ask the question for every engagement that starts from 1 October, not only the ones that feel risky.

I'd also put a line in your contractor onboarding checklist, so the question doesn't depend on whoever happens to be covering that week. And I'm a recruiter, not a solicitor, so take advice on anything borderline.

Does any of this change how you hire a permanent finance director?

Not in itself. Employees have always needed a right to work check, and a permanent finance director is an employee, so that part of the process stays as it was. What has changed is the contract and temporary side, which is where interim and part-time finance cover tends to sit.

It does make the interim or permanent decision a little more than a cost question. A permanent hire goes through your own checks. An interim finance director supplied by an agency arrives with someone else carrying the check. And a person you engage directly in their own name brings the check back to you.

None of those routes is wrong. They carry different paperwork, so decide which one you're using before the person starts, not after.

If you're lining up interim or contract cover and want a second pair of eyes on how it's set up, send us the role when you're ready. Our finance recruitment team can talk through whether cover or a permanent financial controller makes more sense for you.