Land & Water: identifying and addressing agency labour risks | Compliance.One

Land & Water commissioned Compliance.One to review its recruitment agencies. The audit identified significant issues involving Right to Work checks, payroll arrangements and evidence of worker qualifications. A corrective action plan was put in place to address the findings.

About Land & Water

Land & Water is an environmental engineering business working across coastlines, rivers, streams, wetlands and waterways. Its projects serve government agencies, corporations and private clients, often in sensitive environments requiring specialist approaches and equipment.

The requirement

The business wanted independent assurance over its recruitment agencies and the way they engaged and checked workers. Compliance.One reviewed agency processes, systems and records to identify gaps and establish the actions needed.

What the audit assessed

The audit examined legislative and regulatory compliance, agreed terms of business, worker pre-employment checks and engagement arrangements. It also reviewed insurance held by labour providers and sub-suppliers, and how agencies treated worker pay, benefits and statutory employment rights.

The review covered recruitment best practice and service-level agreements, alongside ethical processes for financial disclosure and handling grievances.

Evidence reviewed

Each supplying agency was asked for evidence across 14 documents:

• Pre-audit questionnaire
• Certificate of incorporation
• VAT registration certificate
• Evidence of PAYE registration
• Confirmation of business insurance
• Template registration forms and worker contracts
• Health and safety, equal opportunities and diversity, and environmental policies
• Complaints policy and procedure
• Modern Slavery Statement
• ISO certificates, if held
• Membership certificates, such as ALP, REC or APSCo

The programme described in the case study covers all supplied workers through six-monthly checks of recruitment partners' processes, systems and records.

What the audit uncovered

The reported audit findings relate to a sample of 68 workers:

• Right to Work checks: 34 workers, or 50% of the sample, failed the checks assessed in the audit. This finding concerns the checks and should not be read as a finding that those workers had no legal right to work.
• Licences and qualifications: the process for obtaining and checking evidence was inconsistent.
• CSCS and CPCS cards: 48 workers may not have held the required card. The source records this as a potential gap, rather than a confirmed absence for every worker.
• Payroll intermediary: 33 workers were paid through an intermediary that had recently gone into liquidation.
• Offshore payroll: one worker was engaged through an offshore payroll company, with no deductions made from gross payment.

Corrective action and outcome

A plan was put in place to rectify all the failure items identified. The supplied case study reports that, following this work, Land & Water's supplying agencies and workers were compliant with the relevant UK legislation.

The audit made the issues visible and provided a defined route to remediation. The results describe the position reported at the conclusion of that work, rather than a new assessment of current compliance.

Download the Land & Water case study (PDF)