Closed passport and a blank checklist on a desk in a small office

Lawful employment of cleaners at Bristol premises

9 min read
Rules and permits
Lawful employment of cleaners at Bristol premises is the cleaning firm's duty, and a client buying cleaning for its own building is not penalised for the firm's staff. Since 1 October 2026 the right to work rules reach further: a business that has agreed to supply cleaning to others and subcontracts it can be treated as the employer.

A Bristol business that pays a contractor to clean its own building is not the employer of the cleaners and, under the law as it stands from 1 October 2026, is not liable to a civil penalty if one of them has no right to work. The cleaning firm is. The exception is a business that has itself agreed to provide or arrange cleaning for another party and passes the work on: section 48 of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 treats it as employing every individual who personally does that work (legislation.gov.uk, Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025, section 48). Facilities companies, managing agents and main contractors are the usual examples. The sections below explain who counts as an employer, how checks are made, what a breach costs and how far a client's questions should go.

Who counts as a cleaner's employer now

Until 1 October 2026 the penalty scheme in the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 reached only employment under a contract of service or apprenticeship, and guidance from that period described each firm in a chain as answerable for its own staff alone (legislation.gov.uk, section 25 of the 2006 Act). Section 48 kept that definition but made it subject to two new sections. New section 14A treats a business as employing an individual it engages on a worker's contract, unless the business is merely a client or customer of that individual's own trade, and an individual sub-contractor it engages to carry out work it has contracted to provide to a third party (legislation.gov.uk, section 48). A cleaning company that calls its operatives self-employed and sends them to client sites under its own contracts is therefore their employer for right to work purposes.

New section 15A reaches further up. A business contracted to provide or arrange work or services, which enters into a contract under which someone else provides any part of them, is treated as employing any individual who personally provides the work. That holds where it has no contract with the individual and where it does not know the individual is working, applies at any link in a chain of contracts, and leaves the direct employer's liability in place (legislation.gov.uk, section 48, inserting section 15A).

Section 15A also covers substitution: where a business employs an individual to provide work, it is treated as employing whoever personally provides that work. The Home Office guide reads this as aimed at arrangements that let a worker send someone else, and expects the substitute to be checked before starting (GOV.UK, right to work checks: an employer's guide).

How a cleaning firm checks its staff

The underlying test is in section 15 of the 2006 Act. A breach happens when a business takes on an adult who needs immigration permission and either lacks it, holds permission that is no longer valid, or is barred by its conditions from that particular work. The business has a defence, known as a statutory excuse, only if it can show that it met the prescribed requirements (legislation.gov.uk, Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, section 15).

The Home Office guide sets those requirements out. An employer may examine original documents from the acceptable lists with the worker present, either in person or on a live video call while it holds the originals, then copy them and record the date; it may use the Home Office online service with a share code, which is the only option for a worker whose status is an eVisa; or it may use a registered right to work digital verification service. Copies are kept during the engagement and for two years after it, a follow-up check is needed before any time-limited permission expires, and all of this must be completed before the worker starts (GOV.UK, employer's guide). For a firm covering early-morning office cleans at short notice, the practical rule is that nobody joins a rota until the record is complete.

What a breach costs, and where knowledge comes in

Ignorance is no answer to a civil penalty. A notice may be served before anyone has decided whether the business has an excuse, and a business that was aware at some stage of the engagement that the cleaner could not lawfully work loses the excuse altogether (legislation.gov.uk, section 15). Section 15A makes the same point for firms higher up a chain, which carry the liability even if they had no idea who was cleaning under their contract (legislation.gov.uk, section 48).

The code of practice in force from 1 October 2026 sets the starting point at £45,000 for each illegal worker on a first breach and £60,000 for each worker where the employer has had a breach within the previous three years. Each figure falls by £5,000 per worker where the employer reported the worker to the Home Office, and by another £5,000 for active co-operation; a first breach can end in a warning notice where the employer qualifies for both reductions and also shows effective checking practices (GOV.UK, code of practice on preventing illegal working).

Three positions a Bristol client can be in

The first, and most common, is buying cleaning for the client's own use: an office floor in the city centre, a café with an evening clean, a school contracting directly with a cleaning firm. The code of practice states that the extended liability provisions do not apply to end users, clients or customers who are not under a contract to provide the work or services onward to a third party (GOV.UK, code of practice). The contractor carries the duty to check, and the client carries no penalty risk for the contractor's staff.

The second is an intermediary: a business that owes cleaning to someone else under its own contract and hires a cleaning firm to deliver it. A facilities company engaged by a building's owner to keep it clean, or a managing agent that a landlord has engaged to organise cleaning of shared areas and that signs the cleaning contract in its own name, falls within section 15A (legislation.gov.uk, section 48). No Home Office example deals with managing agents. An agent that contracts purely on the landlord's behalf, or a landlord whose leases promise tenants a cleaning service, is left with the wording of the Act and its own paperwork, and should read the two together rather than assume either way.

The third is a business that takes on cleaners itself, whether as employees or as individuals engaged on workers' contracts, and is their direct employer with the full duty to check. Agency cleaners supplied into the business's own operations are different: the employer's guide treats the employment business as responsible in a standard supply and says the changes are not meant to make the hirer routinely repeat its checks (GOV.UK, employer's guide).

How a business higher up the chain protects itself

A business treated as an employer under section 15A has its own route to a statutory excuse, and the code of practice lists what it requires before work starts. There must be a written statement of terms requiring the next firm to carry out prescribed checks, to subcontract only with written consent and on equivalent terms, to accept audits, to face enforcement action such as suspension or termination if illegal working is found, and to co-operate with any Home Office investigation by explaining the chain and naming each party in it. Substitution needs controls, and identity verification systems must confirm that the person attending is the person checked (GOV.UK, code of practice). The same code says the Home Office will normally pursue the direct employer first and look upstream when that employer cannot be identified or the requirements were not met.

Contracts signed before 1 October 2026 are not drawn in merely because the work continues, according to the employer's guide, but a renewal or variation may create a new arrangement depending on its legal effect, and no grace period applies to new contracts (GOV.UK, employer's guide). A facilities team renewing a Bristol cleaning contract this autumn has an obvious moment to add the statement.

Asking for assurance without discriminating

A client outside section 15A can still ask for assurance, because an enforcement visit or the sudden removal of cleaners disrupts the service. Useful requests are a short description of how checks are made, confirmation that every person on the contract was checked before starting, the names of any subcontractors and notice before new ones are brought in. The guide on checking insurance, references and training covers the rest of a pre-contract questionnaire, and what commercial office cleaning includes helps size the team the contract will need.

Those questions have a limit. The Home Office's statutory code on avoiding discrimination expects the same check for every worker, British citizens among them, and warns against singling out people who seem to be migrants or presuming anything about immigration status from skin colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, accent, surname or the years a person has lived in the UK. Demanding an online check is not permitted except where the worker holds an eVisa, and departing from the code can be cited in an Equality Act 2010 claim (GOV.UK, code of practice on avoiding discrimination). A client should not ask for an individual cleaner to be re-checked or turned away because of an accent or appearance, and should not keep copies of cleaners' identity documents itself.

Price, quotes and lawful staffing

Lawful staffing also shows in the price. A rate that looks too low to cover the hours specified is a reason to ask how the work is staffed and whether subcontractors are involved, and the guide on wage rates and your Bristol cleaning contract explains how to read the labour line. When you request quotes, asking each bidder to describe its checking method and any subcontracting puts the answers side by side, which is how the site compares quotes on staffing as well as cost. The commercial cleaning services pages describe the work itself.