Glasgow-based BTO Solicitors has flagged new commencement regulations laid before Parliament on 29 June that will bring section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 into force on 1 October 2026. The provision widens employers’ statutory duty to prevent illegal working so that it extends beyond traditional employees to agency temps, self-employed contractors, individual subcontractors and gig-economy platform labour. Under the revised framework, any business that ‘arranges or facilitates’ paid work may be liable for civil penalties of up to £60,000 per illegal worker if it fails to carry out status checks. Sponsor-licence holders also face licence suspension or revocation. The Home Office is expected to publish updated right-to-work guidance later this summer, but immigration advisers warn companies not to wait: mapping the full labour supply chain, inserting audit rights and immigration warranties into contracts, and training procurement as well as HR teams will be essential. For global-mobility programmes the expansion adds complexity when engaging overseas contractors on short-term UK assignments or remote workers who occasionally visit the UK. Businesses should build immigration status verification into vendor-onboarding workflows and ensure that statement-of-work models do not inadvertently create exposure. Because civil penalties can be imposed even when illegal working is discovered off-site (for example at a client location), multinationals are reassessing master-service agreements to cascade compliance obligations throughout the supply chain. Contractors themselves may demand higher rates to reflect the administrative burden, potentially increasing project costs.
Source: BTO Solicitors LLP Insight
