Agency Worker and Self-Employed Accident Claims
Agency workers, contractors and gig workers can still claim for a work injury, but the right defendant differs. Depending on who controlled your work, it may be the agency, the business you were placed with, or a site occupier, and their insurer, rather than a single employer.
Who Is Your Employer for Injury Purposes?
Direct Answer: Courts look at who controlled how, when and where you worked and who provided the equipment, not just the label in your contract. A business that directs an agency worker's day-to-day work can owe them the same duty of care as an employee.
For agency workers, both the agency and the business where you are placed may owe duties. The agency may be your employer and hold employers' liability insurance, or the end user may be treated as responsible for site safety and equipment. Where the labels are unclear, solicitors consider both.
Self-Employed and Gig Workers
A genuinely self-employed contractor cannot claim against their own business, but may claim against the person who controlled the site or the work, or against another contractor whose negligence caused the accident, usually under public liability cover and occupiers' liability principles. Your employment status is sometimes disputed, and a court can find a worker is really an employee, which opens the employers' liability route.
Insurance
Employers' liability insurance covers employees, while public liability insurance can respond to claims by non-employees. Which applies depends on the legal relationship, which is why identifying who controlled your work is the first step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an agency worker claim for an accident at work?
Can I claim if I'm self-employed?
What if I was called self-employed but worked like an employee?
Which insurance pays a non-employee's claim?
Do I have to prove my employer was negligent?
How long do I have to bring a agency worker claim?
Can I make a workplace injury claim on a no win no fee basis?
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Read moreWhere this applies: This page covers England and Wales. The rules in Scotland and Northern Ireland are different.
Sources for this page
Every rule stated above is based on the primary sources below. Each link goes to the legislation, court rule or regulator itself so you can check it. Last verified 18 September 2026.
- Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, s.58 (conditional fee agreements)
The provision that makes CFAs lawful and enforceable. CFAs derive from this section, not from LASPO.
- Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, arts. 4–5 · in force from 1 April 2013
Art. 4 caps the success fee at 100% of base costs. Art. 5 caps what may be taken from damages in personal injury at 25% of PSLA plus past pecuniary loss, net of CRU, at first instance.
- Civil Procedure Rules, Part 44 (incl. rr.44.13–44.17, QOCS)
Qualified one-way costs shifting and its exceptions. Rule 44.14 was amended with effect from 6 April 2023.
- Limitation Act 1980, s.11 (personal injury actions)
Three years from the date of the accident or the date of knowledge. Property damage such as a damaged vehicle is a separate claim with a longer six-year period under s.2.
- Limitation Act 1980, s.14 (date of knowledge)
The three-year period can run from the 'date of knowledge': when you first knew the injury was significant and attributable to the act or omission alleged to be negligent. Central in delayed-diagnosis cases.
- Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969
Most employers must hold employers' liability insurance covering injury or disease to employees, so that a successful claimant can be paid.
- Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, s.69 (civil liability for breach of health and safety duties)
For accidents from 1 October 2013, breach of a health and safety regulation does not by itself give a civil claim unless the regulation says so. A workplace injury claim must generally prove negligence, using the regulations as evidence of the standard of care.
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/51)
Allocates health and safety duties among clients, designers, principal contractors and contractors on construction projects.
Who wrote and checked this page
- Written and published by
- Edward & Amaury Solicitors (Edward & Amaury Ltd, company no. 12195443), regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under no. 800525.
- Legal review
- Checked for England & Wales by Edward & Amaury Solicitors — Solicitors regulated by the SRA (no. 800525) (verify on the regulator’s register).Review is recorded against the firm. The individual reviewer is not named on this page.
- Review dates
- Last reviewed 18 September 2026. Next review due 18 March 2027.
Fee rules change. California’s medical malpractice fee limits changed on 1 January 2023, and the QOCS rules in England and Wales changed on 6 April 2023. If you spot something out of date, tell us — we publish corrections.