Reference
Everything here comes from somewhere you can check.
We describe duties published by the Home Office, GOV.UK and the ICO. This page collects the primary sources in one place so you can read them yourself — which is the only sensible way to treat anything a supplier tells you about your obligations.
Checks, evidence and the service to use
- Check a job applicant’s right to work: use their share code (opens in a new tab)GOV.UK The employment service. There are similar-sounding ones; this is the right one.
- Prove your right to work to an employer (opens in a new tab)GOV.UK Where a worker generates the share code you will ask them for.
- Right to work checks: an employer’s guide (opens in a new tab)Home Office The prescribed checks, in full, including manual checks and follow-ups.
- Right to work checklist (opens in a new tab)Home Office The short form version, useful for training an administrator.
- Employer checking service (opens in a new tab)Home Office Where an online check is not possible and you need a verification notice.
Duties, record-keeping and the register
- Sponsorship: guidance for employers and educators (opens in a new tab)Home Office The whole collection. Start here if you are not sure which part applies.
- Sponsor duties and compliance (Part 3) (opens in a new tab)Home Office Reporting duties, record-keeping duties, compliance visits and what follows.
- Appendix D: keeping records for sponsorship (opens in a new tab)Home Office The definitive list of documents a sponsor must keep, and for how long.
- Register of licensed sponsors: workers (opens in a new tab)Home Office Every organisation currently licensed to sponsor, updated regularly.
- Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) (opens in a new tab)FCDO Where a role or course requires an ATAS certificate.
Leave, hours, pay and criminal record checks
- Holiday entitlement (opens in a new tab)GOV.UK Statutory leave, how it accrues, and what counts.
- Maximum weekly working hours (opens in a new tab)GOV.UK The working time limits your hours records have to evidence.
- National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage (opens in a new tab)GOV.UK Including the records an employer must keep, and for how long.
- Check a job applicant’s criminal record (opens in a new tab)GOV.UK When a check is permitted, and what you may keep afterwards.
Employment data and monitoring workers
- Employment information and data protection (opens in a new tab)ICO Including monitoring workers, which any location check at clock-in would be.
Links open on GOV.UK or the ICO. Guidance is reissued regularly — where a date matters, check the version in force rather than taking ours.
Discuss the guidance relevant to your organisation.
Fifteen minutes, and we will go through which duties your arrangements actually attract.