Do Agencies Know They Should Put IR35 Contractors On Their Payroll

[eek]

No. I'm saying that compliance with the conduct regs is in the terms. Most agencies get their terms from an industry body and adapt them. All of those terms assume compliance with regs so will have 'this is the information we provide, this is what you provide, this is what we check, this is what we charge' etc. It's onerous to include 'we only check this if the candidate is not opted out' options (and looks dodgy) so they don't. So EVEN when the candidate opts out the agency is contractually obliged to comply AND clients expect it anyway. Honestly there's A LOT agencies do that is not a fair way to do business - they don't push opt outs so they can swizz candidates or clients.

I do think umbrella companies might have more reason to push opt out, and many have agent clauses that enable them, once the worker has signed, to opt out on their behalf, but I really think this is one crime agencies ain't guilty of.

No sane umbrella firm wants opted out employees - that puts the responsibility (albeit minimum wage) back on the umbrella to pay with no chance of the umbrella getting the money back from the agency).

Of course it depends who the umbrella firm regards as their more important customer - the agency they pay to be on the agency's PSL or the contractor.