Home Office guidance issued in 2024 that recommended all employers conduct right to work checks on suppliers of contractors/staff

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Home Office guidance issued in 2024 recommended that all employers conduct right to work checks on suppliers of contractors/staff.

Q1. What protocols does your organisation have in place with contractors, of any service, to ensure that right to work checks have been conducted? 

Q2. How many contractors/staff did your organisation use from suppliers in the calendar year 2024 and how many right to work checks did your organisation conduct? 

Q3. The number of instances in which your organisation identified that a supplier had not conducted appropriate right to work checks, for the years 2021 - 2024. A breakdown of the measures taken (suspension of contract, refusal to engage in business, sanction)

A1. The Scottish Government (SG) Procurement protocol to check that suppliers are completing appropriate checks is done at the tender stage for all applicable contracts. 

A2. In the calendar year 2024, FSS used 20.8 contractors/agency staff from suppliers. 

FSS HR do not carry out Pre-employment Screening and are not responsible for conducting any right to work checks on contractors/agency staff. 

The supplier is fully responsible for ensuring all staff have the right to work in the UK, are vetted, and are qualified for the role, and we can refuse access to any staff who we believe don’t meet our requirements. 

The personnel security team in SG security and business continuity conduct BPSS checks for all non-government colleagues. Recruitment Agencies on the Temporary and Interim staff services frameworks 2023 to 2027 are responsible for obtaining Baseline Personnel Security Clearance (BPSS) and share this clearance with FSS which is then used when onboarding. The personnel security team completed approximately 7 BPSS checks for FSS in 2024. 

A3. Nil. There are no instances of any contracts being suspended or any issues that we are aware of due to supplier staff being found not to have the right to work in the UK.