Right to work checks were introduced in the UK in 1996 under the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996. This legislation placed a responsibility on employers to check that their employees had the legal right to work in the UK to prevent illegal working.

The framework for these checks was further developed in the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which introduced civil penalties for employers who failed to carry out right to work checks correctly. In 2014, the Immigration Act 2014 tightened requirements further by increasing the penalties and making it mandatory for employers to conduct checks for all new hires. This Act also introduced an online checking service, which has since evolved into the current share code system for non-UK nationals.