From today, employers caught hiring delivery riders or other zero hours workers who have no right to work in the United Kingdom can be fined £60,000 for each worker, disqualified as company directors, or imprisoned for up to five years.
The Home Office said the rules take effect on 1 October 2026. Businesses must check that anyone working in their name is eligible to work in the UK. The duty now covers firms that use flexible, casual and gig economy arrangements, not only those that employ staff on ordinary contracts.
The change extends the Right to Work Scheme to sectors where illegal working has been difficult to police. Food delivery, parcel courier work, construction, warehousing and beauty salons are among the areas brought within the scheme. Until now, many riders and casual workers were treated as self employed, or as substitutes using another person’s account, which left platforms and contractors outside the full statutory checks applied to traditional employers.
The extension is made under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. A business that fails to carry out the prescribed checks loses its statutory excuse. If a worker is later found to be working illegally, the firm can face a civil penalty of up to £60,000 for each person. Knowingly employing someone without permission to work remains a criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in prison. Directors can also be disqualified.
Ministers argue that illegal working undercuts honest firms and helps sustain irregular migration. Enforcement has already been stepped up. In 2025, Immigration Enforcement recorded 256 per cent more arrests in construction and 217 per cent more arrests in distribution and delivery services than in 2024. Officers issued more than 2,400 civil penalties that year, with fines exceeding £130 million.
A week of action in November 2025, known as Operation Equalize, led to 171 arrests of delivery riders in towns and cities across the country. Sixty of those arrested were detained for removal. Separate figures reported by The Telegraph suggested that more than one in ten delivery riders stopped during a related crackdown were working illegally.
Major delivery platforms had already begun voluntary identity checks after pressure from ministers. From today those checks are a legal requirement. A business that completes the check in the prescribed way can rely on a statutory excuse if a worker is later found to lack permission. Firms that do not check, or that allow accounts to be shared with people who have no right to work, are exposed to the new penalties.
The Home Office has said the measure is intended to close a gap that allowed illegal working to continue in the gig economy even as ordinary employers faced heavy fines. Businesses that already verify status are expected to face a more level market. Those that do not will face fines, director bans and, in the most serious cases, prison.
By A.Ikechukwu
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