Kloppite, Although not answering your question at this stage, does he work exclusively for your company or are you amongst other clients he works for? Simon

Legal Liability is never a "one size fits all" concept, and in the event of an incident, responsibility and therefore liability will be ascertained dependant on the exact circumstances. Even if the self-employed contractor is ultimately held to be the responsibility of the contractor, he may need to defend any claim before liability is established. Erring on the side of caution, any self employed person should arrange their own insurance even if it may not be needed. By the way, this isn't a pitch to get people to buy insurance, but if the brown stuff hits the fan, its better to have an insurer looking after you than going it alone.

This guy has his own insurance but works as one of our maintenance team along side other PAYE operatives and under supervision. He receives copies of our RaMs and reads and signs as do all our operatives.

Hi Kloppite, Our maintenance people have one or two sole traders who they use for particular jobs. We developed a draft approval system for them a couple of months ago and I'll happily send you a copy of what we ask them to do if you PM me your email address. Basically we bring them in in advance, supply them with our RAMS relevant to the work they do and then ask them to return once they have reviewed them. They then have a face to face meeting with a Supervisor who discusses the scope of work and confirms with them that they understand what we require. The self-employed worker signs off the relevant RAMS, and both parties sign a declaration. We do not sign off that someone is competent, but we do ask the self employed worker to confirm that he considers himself competent to carry out the work discussed, as well as a few other things. We accept that these people are equivalent to our employees under H&S law.

It's always good to check with your insurers. as they may not pay out even if you consider him covered.

Is sound advice! Ray, I also appreciate the status of employment. Some Employers will take self-employed under their wing and provide all PPE, training, RAMS etc. Some Employers do the exact opposite and insist they stand alone incl. mandatory SSIP membership / review. Each to their own.