From 1 October 2026, the UK’s right to work regime will undergo its most significant expansion in years. For shopfitters, fit-out contractors, and interior specialists, the changes are worth understanding now — because the new rules extend well beyond your employed workforce.
What’s Changing?
Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 broadens the definition of “employer” for the purposes of the illegal working regime. In practice, this means that compliance obligations will extend beyond traditional employment relationships to cover a wider range of working arrangements — including contractors, subcontractors, and labour supplied through third parties.
For businesses in the shopfitting and fit-out sector, where project delivery frequently relies on subcontracted trades, self-employed specialists, and labour supply arrangements, this is a meaningful shift. The Home Office’s position is clear: responsibility for compliance sits with the organisation that has the direct contractual relationship with the individual. Where that cannot be clearly identified, liability may extend further up the contractual chain.
Crucially, the civil penalty regime remains unchanged. Businesses that cannot demonstrate a statutory excuse continue to face fines of up to £60,000 per illegal worker for repeat breaches — and for those holding a sponsor licence, an illegal working penalty can trigger wider enforcement action.
What Should Members Do Now?
The good news is that the existing right to work checking methods remain in place. What changes is the scope of who those checks need to cover, and who within your organisation is responsible for ensuring they happen.
Before 1 October, members should consider:
- Mapping all the ways labour enters their business — not just direct employees, but subcontractors, agency workers, and outsourced services
- Reviewing existing contracts to confirm who is responsible for right to work compliance at each stage
- Ensuring procurement and commercial teams, not just HR, are aware of the new obligations
- Checking that substitution arrangements — where one individual may replace another on a job — have appropriate identity verification controls in place
Could the NAS Help?
As we consider how best to support our members through these changes, we are exploring whether there is appetite for the NAS to offer an employee verification service — helping businesses meet their compliance obligations simply, affordably, and with the confidence that comes from working through a trusted industry body.
This is still at an early stage, but before we go further, we want to hear from you. Would a verification service be of value to your business? Is this something you would use? Your feedback will directly shape whether and how we develop this further.
Get in touch with us at james.filus@shopfitters.org — we’d love to hear your thoughts.
