Who is responsible when an agency worker is injured at work?

What the agency and the client each have to do

HSE calls the agency the supplier and the client the end user business. Its guidance splits the duties like this.

So when someone is hurt on a client's site, the questions are what the client did to control the risk on the day, and what the agency found out and passed on before the first shift. Keep the risk information you got from the client with the job.

Who reports the injury under RIDDOR

RIDDOR puts the duty to report on the "responsible person". For agency workers HSE says: "In many cases, the employment agency is the legal employer, and is under the same legal obligations as any other employer to report accidents and ill health to their employees." Where the workers are self-employed, "the duty is on the host business to report accidents as the person in control of the premises where an accident occurs."

HSE also says agencies should make sure reporting responsibility is clearly assigned on the facts of each arrangement, and that clients and workers understand it. In practice, write it into your terms of business with the client, and agree that the client tells you the same day about any accident involving your worker.

The 7 days do not include the day of the accident, but do include weekends and rest days. That matters for temps who were not due to work every day: count the calendar days, not the shifts they missed.

Employers' liability insurance

GOV.UK says you must have employers' liability insurance as soon as you become an employer, covering you for at least £5 million, and you can be fined £2,500 for every day you are not properly insured. You must also display the certificate where employees can see it, or risk a £1,000 fine. A paper copy in the office and a copy your temps can reach online both help.

GOV.UK's page does not deal with agency workers on someone else's site. Ask your broker in writing whether your policy covers the workers you supply while they work under a client's control, and whether any clients' contracts ask you for particular cover. Keep the answer with your insurance documents.

Sick pay after an injury

GOV.UK says agency workers "may be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay". The employer pays it, which for most temps is the agency, or the umbrella company if the worker is employed by one. From 6 April 2026 SSP is:

• available to all eligible employees regardless of their earnings;
• payable from the first full day of sickness absence, with no waiting days;
• paid at 80% of average weekly earnings or £123.25 a week, whichever is lower, for up to 28 weeks.

A worker must have done some work for you and been ill for at least one full working day. An injury absence also matters for the Agency Workers Regulations: sickness or injury pauses the 12-week clock for up to 28 calendar weeks rather than resetting it. The AWR 12-week tracker shows the effect on the qualifying date.

What the agency should record

Write it down the day you hear, even if the client is doing its own report. Your record should let you answer HSE, your insurer and payroll without ringing round again.

• Who was hurt, their role, the client, the site, the date and time, and who at the client told you.
• What happened and the injury, in the worker's words and the client's, and any witnesses.
• First aid or hospital treatment, and whether the client entered it in its accident book.
• Each day the worker is off or on lighter duties, so you can see when 3 and 7 days pass.
• Who made the RIDDOR report, when, and its reference, or why it was not reportable.
• Fit notes, Statutory Sick Pay paid, and the date they return.
• The risk information you got from the client before the placement, and any changes agreed afterwards.

HMRC also expects payroll records to include sickness absences, kept for 3 years from the end of the tax year they relate to.