Right to Work checks

Request

Home Office guidance issued in 2024 recommended that all employers conduct right to work checks on suppliers of contractors/staff.

• What protocols does your organisation have in place with contractors, of any service, to ensure that right to work checks have been conducted?
• How many contractors/staff did your organisation use from suppliers in the calendar year 2024 and how many right to work checks did your organisation conduct?
• The number of instances in which your organisation identified that a supplier had not conducted appropriate right to work checks, for the years 2021 – 2024.
  • A breakdown of the measures taken (suspension of contract, refusal to engage in business, sanction)

Outcome

Some information provided.

Response

• What protocols does your organisation have in place with contractors, of any service, to ensure that right to work checks have been conducted?

In the UK Civil Service, the responsibility for conducting right to work checks on contracted suppliers and their employees typically falls on the supplier, not the contracting department or agency itself. However, the contracting department or agency has a responsibility to ensure that the supplier is fulfilling this obligation, either by conducting the checks themselves or verifying that the supplier has done so. This is often achieved through due diligence checks during the contracting phase and ongoing contract management.

Further advice and assistance:

Supplier’s Primary Responsibility: The supplier, as the employer, is primarily responsible for ensuring all individuals they supply to the civil service department have the right to work in the UK.

Contracting Department’s Due Diligence: The contracting department or agency should conduct due diligence on the supplier to verify they have robust right to work procedures in place.

Checking the Supplier’s Process: This due diligence might involve reviewing the supplier’s right to work policies and procedures or requesting evidence that checks have been carried out.

Potential for Direct Checks: In some cases, the contracting department might choose to conduct right to work checks directly on individuals supplied by the contractor, especially for contingent or agency workers.

The National Archives, like other government departments, in line with the above linked advice does due diligence checks at the contracting stage. These are conducted by the Manager managing the contract in-conjunction with Procurement. There are also local smaller contracted services that a department may have with a provider – responsibility then falls to the relevant department manager to perform due diligence checks.

• How many contractors/staff did your organisation use from suppliers in the calendar year 2024 and how many right to work checks did your organisation conduct?

The number of contractors/staff used by suppliers in 2024 is not held by The National Archives.

For most departments within The National Archives ‘right to work’ checks are carried out by the supplier and a number is therefore not held by The National Archives.

The exception is the Human Resources department who take on responsibility for carrying out the checks for Human Resources and Finance contractors.

In 2024 Human Resources carried out six checks on contractors (two for Human Resources, four for Finance).

• The number of instances in which your organisation identified that a supplier had not conducted appropriate right to work checks, for the years 2021 – 2024.
  • A breakdown of the measures taken (suspension of contract, refusal to engage in business, sanction)?

Information not held.

Further information on right to work checks can be found here – Guidance: Right to work checks an employer’s guidance