Changes have been made to the concessions which applied during the COVID pandemic. Employers now need to prepare to return to the previous way of doing things from 17 May 2021. This article sets out the concessions and the expectations going forward.
Right to work checks in the UK changed from 30 March 2020 with the introduction of concessions which recognised that most recruitment was being done remotely during the Covid crisis. Employers were expected to have a potential employee send them a copy of their proof of right to work and then to check this copy over a video call whilst the candidate held up the original document. The document checker then had to annotate their copy with the following phrase:
“adjusted check undertaken in [date] due to COVID-19”
The copy then needed to be signed by the verifier.
Initially UKVI said that checks would need to be repeated on the return to work to ensure a face to face validation was completed. In a piece of good news, these retrospective checks will not be required and employers will maintain the statutory excuse against a civil penalty as long as checks between 30 March 2020 and 16 May 2021 were completed in the proper manner.
From 17 May, the concessions stop, meaning that face to face checks will be needed for any potential recruit from that date. This seems a little premature given the Government’s road map out of COVID, advises that staff should continue working from home where possible! Nevertheless, in order to satisfy the statutory excuse, employers will need to go back to face to face validation. At Passport Proven, we have long recognised that imposters are a huge risk to business, so we see why face to face checks are important. Contact us if you need help in implementing these checks.
