New Digital Right to Work Checks Now in Place
Digital right to work check regulations are live from 1st October
From 1 October 2022, businesses will only be able to hire applicants by meeting them face to face or using ID validation technology to check hiring documents.
Candidates will no longer be able to send right-to-work documents to their employer by email to show they can legally work in the country.
Companies face a fine of up to £20,000 if they fail to comply with the new legislation.
From 1 October 2022, employers must carry out ‘manual’ in-person checks on original documents included under the Home Office’s List A and List B although employers must only complete checks for Biometric Residence Card (BRC), Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) and Frontier Worker Permit (FWP) holders using the Home Office’s online right to work service). For candidates with current British and Irish passports, the employer can engage a third-party identity service provider (IDSP) to verify those passports using Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT) with the employer then completing the right to work check using the IDVT document provided by the IDSP.
"A positive change for businesses"
In an interview with HR Magazine, Kenneth Hanslip, technical director at Marston Holdings (one of the newly appointed providers), said the new rules represent a positive change for businesses. “For a business that hires remote workers, this means they can do so at a better and more efficient pace than having to bring someone into the office for a day one check. It's certainly a move in the right direction. You have to have evidence that someone has the right to take up the work you're offering, so every job could be slightly different. If you're a large company and you have to train managers in that, you're virtually retraining your managers every week. However coming through an IDSP that has been certified as being competent to do the job, you take that need for training away. There's a greater confidence that the people you recruit go through the process and will have a right to work in the UK.”
The three-step process for verifying documents
Hanslip gave an example of Marston’s three-step process for verifying documents.
“We will do a manual check on a document with trained vetting officers. Then we'll put it into a process called keesing, using keesing technologies which manage the world's largest identity document library. So we can say with a very high level of confidence that those documents are genuine.
“The applicant will then upload a selfie image. We have people trained in facial comparison who will check that the selfie looks like the person in the document. The process will give employers high confidence that the person being checked has the correct and legal documents.”
Who are the providers?
The government named the Post Office and identity verification platform Yoti as the first certified digital identity service providers (IDSP) in June 2022.
- Since then, 15 other IDSPs have received government certification:
- HooYu;
- TrustID;
- Digital Identity Net UK;
- Paycasso;
- Verify;
- Sterling (EMEA);
- T4 Communications UK;
- Deloitte;
- Credas Technologies;
- Amiqus Resolution;
- Digidentity;
- CDD Services;
- OCR Labs Global;
- uComply;
- GB Group; and
- Marston Holdings.
