From 1 October 2026, the rules on right to work checks change, and they reach further into the events industry than before. Until now, businesses were required to check the right to work of their own employees. The new rules extend that duty to agency workers, contractors, subcontractors and some gig workers. Any event business that brings in staff through an agency or on a contract basis is now in scope.

The change comes under Section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 and applies to arrangements that begin on or after 1 October. The penalties are serious. Fines start at £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and rise to £60,000 for repeat breaches, with up to five years in prison in the most serious cases. The Home Office has named hospitality, alongside construction, logistics and the gig economy, as a high-risk sector.

For most event organisers the practical question is a straightforward one. Can you be confident that everyone representing your brand on site has been checked correctly, and that your staffing partner can prove it?

At Motion, that has never been a question we have had to scramble to answer. Every person we supply is employed correctly, paid correctly and checked correctly, because that is what running a staffing business properly requires. The law is now catching up with a standard we already hold.

“Compliance will always be part of the deliverable for us, not something bolted on at the end. If you are trusting an agency to put people in front of your customers, you should be able to trust that every one of them has the right to be there. From 1 October the law will require it. We have required it of ourselves from day one.”

Jordan Simpson, co-founder of Motion

If you use agency staff for your events, it is worth reading the detail on what is changing and what businesses are being advised to do. You can read the full article here, and the legislation itself is on legislation.gov.uk.

If you would like to talk about how we handle vetting and compliance for your events, contact us here to get in touch.