Right to work checks for pub staff: what changed on 1 October 2026, Christmas temps, and the check that saves you £45,000

Every person who works behind your bar needs a right to work check before their first paid shift, done one of three set ways, copied, dated and kept for two years after they leave. Since 1 October 2026 the rules also cover casual staff on worker contracts, not just employees, and the maximum civil penalty is £60,000 per illegal worker. If you take on Christmas temps in the next six weeks, this is the bit of paperwork that's worth ten minutes per person.

Most of what you'll find online is written for HR departments and logistics firms. Pubs are different. We hire fast, we hire students and friends of staff, we have a glass collector who's "self-employed" and a quiz host who invoices us, and we're one of the few trades where a civil penalty can also put the premises licence up for review. So here's the Home Office's own guidance, read for a pub. I'm a licensee, not an immigration lawyer, so where your situation is odd, ring the Home Office employer helpline before you guess.

What changed on 1 October 2026

Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 came into force on 1 October 2026, and the Home Office published a new Employer's guide to right to work checks the same day. Before, the duty only bit on people employed under a contract of employment. Now the guide says it's relevant to anyone who engages people "under contracts of employment, under worker's contracts, as individual sub-contractors", plus online matching services like gig platforms.

For a pub that mostly matters in two places:

• Casual and zero-hours staff on worker contracts. If you've ever been told your casuals are "workers, not employees", that used to put them outside the scheme for penalty purposes. For anyone taken on from 1 October 2026, it doesn't.
• The label doesn't decide it. The guide says the scheme applies "according to the objective features of the working arrangement, rather than the label given to it". Calling the lad who collects glasses on a Saturday self-employed doesn't make him so.

It isn't retrospective. The Home Office Q&A says the relevant date is when the arrangement was entered into, so a casual you took on in the summer isn't swept in just because they're still doing shifts. But every Christmas temp you take on now is a new arrangement, and checking everyone the same way is simpler than working out who's an employee and who's a worker.

The three ways to do a check

The guide allows exactly three. You can't insist on one, it depends on the person's nationality and status, and you have to give them a reasonable chance to prove it.

The three prescribed checks, in pub terms

Check	Who it's for	What you do
Manual document check	British and Irish citizens, mainly	See the original document in person, check it, copy it, date the copy
Home Office online check	Anyone with an eVisa or digital status, including EU Settlement Scheme	They give you a share code and date of birth, you check it on GOV.UK and save the result
Digital verification service (RtW DVSP)	British and Irish passport holders who'd rather do it on their phone	A registered provider checks the passport chip and their face, you keep their report

Three details catch pubs out:

• A British or Irish passport can be expired. Annex A of the guide accepts a British passport "current or expired" for a manual check. A student who hasn't renewed theirs is fine. A clipped passport, with the corners cut, is cancelled and isn't.
• eVisa holders can only prove it online. The guide is plain that someone with an eVisa "will only be able to evidence their right to work using the Home Office online service". Don't ask them for a card. An old BRP card isn't acceptable on a manual check.
• A photo on their phone isn't a manual check. The manual check means having the original document in your hand, with the person in front of you. A screenshot sent on WhatsApp the night before doesn't give you any protection.

The manual check, step by step

This is the one most of us will do for most Christmas temps. The guide sets out the steps and they all have to be done before the person starts work.

1. Obtain the original document from List A or List B in Annex A of the guide. For a British citizen that's usually the passport. If they haven't got one, List A also allows a UK birth certificate, long or short, together with an official document showing their name and permanent National Insurance number.
2. Check it with them standing there: does the photo look like them, does the date of birth match how old they look and what's on their other papers, has it been tampered with, and does any permission show an expiry date or a work restriction.
3. Copy it. For a passport, every page with the expiry date, nationality, date of birth, signature, photo and any visa or permission. The front cover doesn't need copying.
4. Record and retain. Write on the copy, or keep with it: "The date on which this right to work check was made: [date]". The guide says just writing a date on the copy isn't enough. Then keep it securely for as long as they work for you and for two years after they leave, and destroy it after that.

Your manager can do the check for you. The guide allows that, as long as they're working under your direction. But the penalty still lands on you if they do it wrong, which is a good reason to make it a two-minute routine everyone does the same way.

Who you don't need to check

Not everyone who works in your building is yours to check.

• Agency staff. If an agency supplies a bartender for the party season, the agency is the employer and does the check. The guide's own example is an employment business supplying temps "to bars and restaurants during busy periods". The Home Office says hirers aren't expected to duplicate it.
• Independent businesses. The guide says the scheme doesn't apply to people "operating an independent business either in their own name or through their own company" who contract directly with customers. Its example is a self-employed plumber who advertises to the public and works for lots of customers. The band who gig round every pub in the area, the DJ with a website, the quiz company and the line cleaner are in that box.
• The grey bit. Someone described as self-employed who only works for you, on your rota, under your direction, and couldn't send someone else in their place, is not obviously in that box. The Q&A says there is "no blanket exclusion" just because someone's called a contractor or freelancer. If in doubt, check them. It costs nothing.

What getting it wrong costs a pub

The Home Office guide lists the sanctions: a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker, prison of up to five years and an unlimited fine where an employer knew or had reasonable cause to believe it, closure of the business, and disqualification as a director. Lawyers summarising the regime put a first breach at up to £45,000 per worker, with £60,000 for repeat breaches within three years.

Turn £45,000 into pints. On a £5.34 pint, a pub keeps about £2.45 after VAT and the cost of the beer. £45,000 ÷ £2.45 is about 18,400 pints of profit. For a pub selling 800 pints a week, that's 23 weeks of the whole draught gross profit, for one Christmas temp nobody checked properly.

And there's the bit that's ours alone. The guide says a civil penalty "may also affect" your ability to hold a licence in the alcohol sector, and that where a licence holder gets one, that's grounds for the licensing authority to review, suspend or revoke the licence. Immigration Enforcement also has the same power of entry as licensing officers for joint visits. So a missing photocopy isn't just a fine, it's a conversation about the premises licence.

The good news is the flip side. Do the check properly before the first shift and you have what the law calls a statutory excuse. If a document later turns out to be a good fake you couldn't reasonably have spotted, that excuse protects you from the civil penalty. It doesn't protect you if you knew.

Christmas temps: the routine I'd use

The mistake isn't usually skipping the check. It's doing the check after the first shift, because they started on a Friday night when you were short and the paperwork could wait till Monday. The guide is clear the check has to happen before work starts.

• Do it at the trial shift conversation, not after. Tell them when you ask them in: bring your passport, or your share code if you've got an eVisa. No document, no rota.
• Check everyone, the same way. The guide warns about discrimination. Checking only the people who sound or look like they might not be British is both unlawful and exactly how the one you didn't check slips through. Your sister's lad gets the same check as everyone else.
• Put a follow-up date on anyone with time-limited permission. If the online check shows permission ending, a follow-up check is needed before it runs out. Students also often have limits on the hours they can work, which the online check result sets out. Note it on the rota so a busy December doesn't push them over.
• Returners get checked again. If last Christmas's temp left and you're taking them on again, it's a new start. The Home Office says a fresh check isn't needed for each assignment while someone stays engaged with you, but someone who left and came back is cleaner treated as new.
• One folder, one place. A locked drawer or a folder on the office computer with every copy and its dated statement. If Immigration Enforcement and the licensing officer walk in together on a Saturday, you want to find it in under a minute.

Here's an idea I haven't seen anyone else suggest: put the right to work check on the same sheet as everything else a new starter needs on day one, the till login, the Challenge 25 sign-off and the training record. Make it one form. Nobody gets a till code until the top box is ticked. It turns a legal duty into the thing that physically has to happen before they can pour a pint, which is the only kind of rule that survives a busy December.

While you're doing starter paperwork, the other December traps are worth five minutes too: holiday pay for temps, which they're owed even on a six-week stint, and the new employer duties that came in on 30 October. If staff turnover is what keeps you hiring, I've written about what it does to your stock as well.

Common questions

Do I need to do a right to work check for a Christmas temp?

Yes, before their first shift, if you employ them directly. Since 1 October 2026 that includes casual staff on worker contracts as well as employees. If an agency supplies them, the agency does the check.

Can I accept an expired British passport for a right to work check?

Yes. The Home Office's acceptable documents list allows a British passport current or expired. A clipped, cancelled passport isn't acceptable.

What's the fine for employing someone without the right to work?

Up to £60,000 per illegal worker as a civil penalty, with first breaches commonly quoted at up to £45,000. For a pub it can also be grounds for a premises licence review.

How long do I keep right to work copies?

For as long as the person works for you, plus two years after they leave. Then destroy them securely.

Do I need to check a self-employed DJ or band?

Not if they're really running their own business and working for lots of venues. The Home Office says the label doesn't decide it, so someone who only works for you, on your rota, under your direction, is safer checked.

A licensee's reading of the Home Office guidance, not legal advice. For anything unusual, the Home Office Employer Enquiry helpline is 0300 790 6268.