Subcontractor Agreement Template (UK) + Onboarding Pack
Free UK subcontractor agreement templates in Word — labour-only and supply-and-fix — plus an Excel onboarding evidence checklist and a control of contractors procedure.
Key Takeaways
- Use the variant that matches the engagement — labour-only and supply-and-fix differ on title and risk in materials.
- Employers’ liability insurance and right to work checks are legal requirements; public liability and card schemes are contractual ones.
- Whoever appoints a contractor must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves it is competent, and record that they did.
- Write a compliant payment mechanism into the agreement rather than letting the Scheme supply one.
- Track expiry dates. A clean onboarding decays quietly.
The onboarding pack collected once and kept current
Site Samurai collects subcontractor documents through a self-serve portal, holds insurance, competence and right to work evidence against the subcontractor record with its expiry dates, and chases renewals before they lapse. HMRC verification numbers and 0%, 20% or 30% deduction rates are recorded per subcontractor and applied to every payment, with a re-verification cascade when status changes.
Labour-only or supply-and-fix?
The two engagements carry different risk, so they need different agreements. Getting this wrong is not a paperwork problem — it decides who owns the materials, who carries the risk in them, and what you are actually buying.
| Labour only | Supply and fix | |
|---|---|---|
| What the subcontractor provides | Labour, supervision, small tools and PPE | Materials and goods, plus labour, supervision and plant |
| Who buys materials | You do | They do |
| Title in materials | Stays with you throughout | Passes to you on delivery or payment |
| Risk in materials | Yours | Theirs until installed and accepted |
| What you are buying | Workmanship | Goods and workmanship |
| Warranties and certificates | From your own suppliers | From the subcontractor, for what it supplies |
What the agreement must cover
A short-form agreement can be genuinely short, but there are clauses it cannot do without. Payment is the one most often left vague, and it is the one that ends up in adjudication.
- Parties, project and a scope precise enough to price.
- The documents forming the subcontract, and which prevails on a conflict.
- Period, programme and access arrangements.
- Price or rates, the payment cycle, the due date, the final date for payment and the retention percentage.
- The payment notice and pay less notice obligations, so the mechanism is compliant rather than left to the Scheme.
- Variations: instructed in writing, valued at contract rates where they apply.
- CIS status, verification and the payment and deduction statement obligation.
- Insurance levels, health and safety duties, and right to work checks.
- Defects, termination, adjudication and governing law.
Download Templates
What the law actually requires
Plenty of onboarding requirements are contractual habits rather than legal obligations, and it helps to know which is which. Requiring something as a condition of working on your site is entirely legitimate — just do not describe it as the law when it is not.
| Requirement | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Right to work check | Legal | Carried out before the person starts, via share code, original documents or an identity service provider, and recorded with the date |
| Employers’ liability insurance | Legal, where they have employees | At least £5 million under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 |
| Public liability insurance | Contractual | Not compulsory by statute; the level is a commercial decision |
| CDM competence assessment | Legal | Whoever appoints a contractor must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves it has the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and organisational capability |
| CSCS card | Contractual | CSCS states holding a card is not a legislative requirement; it is for the principal contractor or client to decide |
| CIS verification | Legal, for CIS payments | Verify with HMRC before the first payment and apply the rate returned |
Worked example
A groundworks subcontractor is engaged on 08/09/2026 for a £64,000 labour-only package. Before the start on site, the pack collects the company details, an employers’ liability certificate for £10 million expiring 31/03/2027, a public liability certificate at the £5 million level the order requires, the CIS registration and UTR, and dated right to work checks for six operatives. HMRC verification returns a 20% deduction rate, which is recorded against the subcontractor. The competence assessment is signed off on the strength of two references and a reviewed method statement, and the approval record notes a re-assessment due 08/09/2027. The insurance expiry goes into the tracker, so on 01/03/2027 the renewal is chased rather than discovered.
Common mistakes
Onboarding usually fails after it has succeeded — the pack is collected once and never looked at again.
- Starting a subcontractor on site before the evidence pack is complete, then never closing the gap.
- Collecting insurance certificates and not tracking their expiry dates.
- Using a labour-only agreement for a supply-and-fix package, leaving title and risk in materials undefined.
- Leaving the payment mechanism vague, so the Scheme fills the gap on terms nobody chose.
- Describing card schemes or public liability insurance as legal requirements when they are contractual ones.
- Keeping the whole pack in one person’s email, where the person placing the next order cannot reach it.
How the pack connects to payment
The agreement sets the payment cycle. The verification sets the deduction rate. Every payment then runs through the same chain: application, payment notice, pay less notice if there is one, payment by the final date, and a CIS payment and deduction statement to the subcontractor within 14 days of the end of the tax month. An onboarding pack with a gap in it usually shows up first as a payment that cannot be made correctly.
- Agreement → verification → application → payment notice → payment → deduction statement.
- Where the agreement has no compliant payment mechanism, the Scheme supplies the missing terms.
- Insurance and card expiries need a live tracker, not a folder.
Sources
Every statement of law on this page was checked against the source named below before publication. These templates are starting points to adapt with your own advisers, not legal advice.
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, regulations 4, 8 and 15 — legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/regulation/8
- HSE, "Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969: a guide for employers" (HSE40) — hse.gov.uk/pubns/hse40.pdf
- Home Office, "Check a job applicant’s right to work" — gov.uk/check-job-applicant-right-to-work
- HMRC, "What you must do as a Construction Industry Scheme contractor" — gov.uk/what-you-must-do-as-a-cis-contractor
- Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, Part II, ss.109–111 (as amended by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009) — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/53/part/II
- Scheme for Construction Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations 1998, Schedule Part II, paragraphs 4, 8, 9 and 10 — legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/649/schedule/part/II
Last reviewed: 2 September 2026
Onboard once, and keep the evidence current
Site Samurai collects subcontractor documents through a self-serve portal and tracks every expiry date against the record.
Or start your free trial →Subcontractor Agreement Template FAQ
AUTOMATE THIS WORKFLOW
Collect the pack once through a portal, keep every expiry on the record, and know which subcontractors are actually clear to work.