Discover the importance of Annaizu Compliance Management in today's business landscape and how a Home Office compliance management platform can help your business streamline its compliance efforts, reduce risks, and stay ahead of regulations.
If a repeat right to work check shows an employee's permission to work has ended, you must stop employing them in that role — continuing to employ someone without the right to work is a criminal offence for the employer, even if the situation wasn't obvious at the time. The action plan differs depending on how much warning you had.
If you had advance warning (a known expiry date)
Where the original check showed a clear repeat-check date and that date has passed without a valid renewal, you're expected to have already planned around it. Suspend the employee (on unpaid leave, not dismissal, in the first instance) while they resolve their status, and check again before allowing them back to work.
If the loss of status was unexpected
Sometimes a status ends earlier than expected — a visa is curtailed, an application is refused, or an appeal is unsuccessful. Act on the information you actually have: don't continue to roster or pay the person for work after the point you became aware, but don't assume the worst without checking whether an appeal or further application is in progress.
The civil penalty vs. criminal offence distinction
These are two separate exposures, and it's worth being clear on which one is in play. A civil penalty applies where an employer failed to carry out a compliant right to work check at all, or the check they did carry out doesn't meet the required standard — this is the exposure the 'statutory excuse' is designed to protect you from, and it exists regardless of what the employer actually knew. The criminal offence is different: it requires the employer to know, or have reasonable cause to believe, that the person didn't have the right to work, and to continue employing them anyway. Once a repeat check tells you status has lapsed, you now have that knowledge — which is exactly why acting immediately isn't optional advice, it's the line between having a defensible position and being personally exposed to prosecution.
Immediate steps once you know
- Stop rostering the employee for any further shifts from the point you have the information, not from the point it's administratively convenient.
- Check whether an in-time application or appeal is pending — this can mean the person's previous permission continues automatically under Section 3C leave, in which case they may still have the right to work despite the negative-looking news.
- If there is no pending application or appeal, suspend on unpaid leave rather than dismissing outright, and give the employee a clear, dated explanation of what you need to see before they can return.
- Log every date, message, and decision in the employee's right to work file as you go, not retrospectively.
What not to do
- Don't dismiss immediately without checking whether an application or appeal is pending.
- Don't keep the employee working 'just for a few more days' — there's no grace period once you know status has lapsed.
- Don't rely on a verbal assurance from the employee in place of a fresh check.
If status is never resolved
Where an employee can't restore their right to work within a reasonable period, unpaid suspension eventually has to become a dismissal decision. Treat this as dismissal for 'some other substantial reason' rather than misconduct or capability — get employment law advice on the process, because getting the procedure wrong (skipping a meeting, not giving the employee a chance to respond) can create an unfair dismissal claim even where the underlying reason for ending employment was entirely lawful.
Sponsored workers add a reporting duty
If the employee holds a sponsored visa, the loss of right to work isn't only an employment decision — it's also a reportable event under your sponsor licence. Whoever holds Level 1 User access needs to update the Sponsor Management System within the reporting window, separately from whatever you do about the person's employment status. Missing the SMS report is its own compliance failure, on top of any right to work issue, and it's the kind of gap a Home Office compliance visit checks for directly. See our guide to Level 1 Users and key personnel for who's actually responsible for making that report.
Documenting the decision
Record what you knew, when you knew it, and what action you took, in the same file as the original right to work checks — this is what shows a Home Office compliance visit that you acted on the information available. The same file discipline matters if the employee arrived through a TUPE transfer rather than a direct hire.
If the employee later regains their right to work
A successful appeal, a new grant of permission, or a resolved administrative error can put the employee back in a position to work. Don't simply reinstate them from the date their new status is confirmed — run a fresh right to work check before their first shift back, exactly as you would for a new starter, and file that check alongside the record of the suspension. Backdating pay for the suspension period is a separate employment law question from the right to work position, and the two shouldn't be conflated when working out what the employee is owed.
How Annaizu handles this
When a repeat check is logged as failed or lapsed in Annaizu, the platform prompts for the follow-up action taken and timestamps it — building the paper trail a compliance visit would expect to see.
FAQ
Can I keep the employee on in a different, non-working capacity while they sort out their status?
Any arrangement that still amounts to employment needs the same right to work check as their original role.
Does this apply to agency workers and contractors too?
The direct obligation sits with whoever engages the worker under a contract of service — for agency staff, confirm this in your contract with the agency rather than assume.
Do I need to notify the Home Office if I dismiss a sponsored worker for this reason?
The SMS report about the change in circumstances is the notification that matters here — it should be made promptly regardless of whether the eventual outcome is suspension, dismissal, or the employee resolving their status and returning to work.
Related: Sponsor compliance software · Level 1 Users and Key Personnel
GOV.UK references: Checking a job applicant's right to work · Penalties for employing illegal workers
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