ECH6110 - Liaison - Labour Provider Units (LPU)

Labour Provider Units (LPU) are part of National Teams & Special Civil Investigations, covering the UK. They tackle failure to register for VAT, National Insurance contributions and income tax, having developed specific techniques to counter irregularities peculiar to the nature of risk.

Labour Providers units are integrated multi skilled teams that carry out a wide variety of compliance checks. Labour providers, also known as Gang Masters, operate across a wide variety of sectors prevalent within agriculture and construction, also in sectors that include contract cleaning, food processing packaging, transportation, parcel delivery, security, etc. Essentially wherever there is a need for a transitional or seasonal workforce. In the main this is likely to be unskilled or semi skilled labour but not exclusively – labour provision is known to operate within the medical industry with both nurses and consultants presenting similar risks and also within the full range of services provided by local authorities.

The main compliance problems in the sector are bogus supply chains and serial phoenixism. The principal revenue risks relate to: -

• failures by labour providers in respect of their own liabilities - either as a sole trader, partnership or company:
• failures by labour providers in respect of their workers:

Where Employer Compliance come across labour providers during the course of their work, such cases should be referred to the Labour Provider Risk Team in Coventry.