What are the Agency Workers Regulations and what do they mean for a recruitment agency?

In brief. The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 give a temporary agency worker two sets of rights. From the first day of an assignment, the same access to the hirer’s shared facilities and to information about its vacancies as a comparable directly recruited worker. After twelve calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, the same basic working and employment conditions as if the hirer had recruited them directly, which means pay, working time, night work, rest, annual leave and paid time off for antenatal appointments. For a recruitment agency the Regulations decide what you must find out from the hirer, when the twelve-week clock pauses and when it restarts, who is liable when the pay is wrong, and what goes in the Key Information Document before the worker starts. Since 1 October 2026 a worker has six months, not three, to bring a claim about a breach.

Key facts, each with its source

1. The Regulations are the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, SI 2010/93, in force since 1 October 2011 (legislation.gov.uk).
2. Day-one rights. Regulation 12 (collective facilities and amenities) and regulation 13 (information about relevant vacancies) apply from the first day of an assignment; the hirer provides them and is liable for a breach (gov.uk, Agency Workers Regulations 2010 guidance, section 2, updated 25 March 2026).
3. Equal treatment after twelve weeks. Regulation 5 entitles the worker to the same basic working and employment conditions as if recruited directly, once regulation 7’s qualifying period of twelve continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer is complete (legislation.gov.uk, regulations 5 and 7).
4. The clock pauses for a break of up to six weeks, for sickness or injury of up to 28 weeks, for annual leave, for jury service of up to 28 weeks and for a workplace closure; it keeps running through pregnancy and up to 26 weeks after childbirth, and through adoption and paternity leave; it resets to zero for a new hirer, a break of more than six weeks, or a substantively different role (gov.uk, Your rights as an agency worker, Equal treatment; the AWR guidance, section 2).
5. A role is substantively different only where the work or duties change in substance, judged on a combination of skills, pay, location, hours and training, and the agency must tell the worker in writing that the role has changed and that the qualifying period starts again (the AWR guidance, section 2).
6. Pay between assignments no longer avoids equal pay. Regulations 10 and 11 stopped applying on 6 April 2020 (the AWR guidance, section 7).
7. Liability. The hirer is liable for day-one rights. For the twelve-week rights the agency is liable first, with a defence where it obtained, or took reasonable steps to obtain, the hirer’s information and treated the worker accordingly, in which case the liability moves to the hirer (regulation 14; the AWR guidance, section 8).
8. Information requests. A worker can ask the agency in writing for a written statement about equal treatment once the twelve weeks have passed; the agency has 28 days to respond; after 30 days without a reply the worker may ask the hirer, which has 28 days (regulation 16; the AWR guidance, section 8).
9. Awards. There is no maximum award and a minimum of two weeks’ pay; an anti-avoidance award of up to £5,000 is available where a pattern of assignments was structured to deprive the worker of the rights (the AWR guidance, section 8).
10. Time limit. From 1 October 2026 the time limit for bringing a claim to an Employment Tribunal is six months, not three; the change applies to breaches on or after that date (gov.uk, Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act, timeline update, 25 September 2026; the Employment Rights Act 2025’s amendment of regulation 18). The March 2026 edition of the government’s AWR guidance still shows three months and should be read with the Act.
11. The Key Information Document. Before a work-seeker agrees terms with an employment business, regulation 13A of the Conduct Regulations requires a Key Information Document showing how they will be paid and by whom, and it is reissued when the facts change (legislation.gov.uk, SI 2003/3319 as amended; our KID guide).
12. The Employment Rights Act 2025 keeps the twelve-week threshold and will apply its guaranteed hours measures to agency workers, with the hirer responsible by default; the timings follow the consultation that closed on 25 August 2026 and are not yet fixed (gov.uk, the timeline update).

Who the Regulations cover

The Regulations apply to a worker supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily for and under the supervision and direction of a hirer. Umbrella companies and master or neutral vendors that sit in the supply chain are temporary work agencies for the Regulations too, so where several businesses are involved each is liable to the extent it caused the breach, and the agency with the direct contract with the hirer is the one that should obtain the hirer’s information. Genuinely self-employed contractors in business on their own account are outside the Regulations. The Regulations give rights to the worker; they do not oblige a hirer to keep a worker beyond twelve weeks, and a twelve-week assignment is lawful, but a pattern of assignments and breaks designed to stop the clock ever completing is what the anti-avoidance provision catches.

Day one, the hirer’s duties

From the first day of an assignment the worker is entitled to use the collective facilities the hirer provides to its own comparable staff, the canteen, the car park, the workplace crèche, transport between sites, and to be told about relevant vacancies at the establishment in the same way a comparable employee would be. These are the hirer’s duties and the hirer is liable for them, because the agency has no control over a client’s canteen. A good temp desk still asks the hirer at the start of the assignment how it tells agency workers about vacancies and facilities, and writes the answer into the assignment confirmation, so that a worker’s first question has an answer.

The twelve-week clock

The qualifying period is twelve continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, counted from the first day of the assignment, during one or more assignments. A week counts if the worker works any part of it. The clock pauses, and resumes where it left off, for a break of up to six weeks, for up to 28 weeks of sickness or injury, for annual leave, for jury service and for a workplace closure such as Christmas. It keeps running, as if the worker had been at work, during pregnancy and for 26 weeks after the birth, and during adoption and paternity leave. It resets to zero when the worker moves to a different hirer, when there is a break of more than six weeks, or when the worker takes a role at the same hirer that is substantively different.

Two points catch agencies out. First, the comparison is with the hirer, not the agency, so a worker who leaves your agency and returns to the same hirer through a rival within six weeks carries their weeks with them, and a worker who worked at that hirer before through another agency may already have qualified; the guidance says the worker should tell the agency, and a tribunal can reduce an award where they did not. Second, a hirer with several sites is one hirer, so moving between sites does not reset the clock unless the role changes, but a hirer that is a group of separate legal entities is several hirers and the clock restarts between them.

Substantively different

A move from a production line to packing, with little training and mostly the same skills, is not substantively different. A move from the production line to an administrative role probably is. The test is a combination of factors, the skills and training required, the pay rate, the location, the hours and the duties, and it is the tribunal’s judgement in a dispute. Where a hirer tells you a role has changed, the Conduct Regulations require it to do so in writing, and you must give the worker a written description of the new role and tell them in writing that the qualifying period has started again. Without that letter the clock did not reset.

Equal treatment after twelve weeks

From week thirteen the worker is entitled to the basic working and employment conditions they would have had if the hirer had recruited them directly on the first day of the qualifying period. Basic conditions means pay, including overtime, shift and unsocial-hours premiums, bonuses linked to the individual’s work and vouchers with a monetary value, the duration of working time, night work, rest periods and breaks, annual leave above the statutory 5.6 weeks, and paid time off for antenatal appointments. It does not mean occupational sick pay, occupational pensions beyond auto-enrolment, redundancy pay, notice or share schemes. The hirer complies if it identifies a comparable employee doing broadly similar work at the same establishment and treats the worker the same way, with differences explained by skills, qualifications or experience; where there is no comparator the conditions are the hirer’s ordinary terms for the role. Where the worker is paid through an umbrella company, the total they receive must still match the comparator, however the umbrella splits it.

Who pays when it goes wrong

The hirer is liable for day-one rights. For the twelve-week rights the agency is liable first, because it pays the worker, but it has a defence if it obtained the hirer’s information on pay and conditions, or took reasonable steps to obtain it, and paid the worker accordingly; the liability then moves to the hirer that gave wrong information or none. That is why the Regulations work in practice as an information duty on the agency. Ask the hirer for the basic pay, the premiums, the bonus scheme, the vouchers and the annual leave entitlement as soon as it is clear an assignment will pass twelve weeks, put the request and the answer on the file, and diarise a check for pay reviews. A worker who believes their treatment is wrong may ask you in writing for a statement once the twelve weeks are up; you have 28 days to answer, and a tribunal may draw an inference from silence. A tribunal award has no ceiling and a floor of two weeks’ pay, and since 1 October 2026 the worker has six months from the breach to bring the claim.

The Key Information Document and the Conduct Regulations

Before a work-seeker agrees terms with you, regulation 13A of the Conduct Regulations requires a Key Information Document that shows the type of contract, who pays the worker, the rate or minimum rate, how often they will be paid, every deduction and fee, and an illustrative pay statement, and it must be reissued when any of those facts change, for example when an umbrella company is introduced. The Conduct Regulations also require the information you must hold from the hirer before you supply anyone, the identity and nature of the hirer, the start date and likely duration, the role, the hours, the qualifications and authorisations the role needs, the health and safety risks and how they are controlled, and any expenses. The same information is what you need to run the twelve-week clock properly, so one process serves both sets of rules.

What is coming

The Employment Rights Act 2025 keeps the twelve-week threshold. Its right to guaranteed hours will reach agency workers, with the hirer responsible by default for making the offer and a power to move the duty to the agency in cases set by regulations; the government consulted until 25 August 2026 on the hours thresholds, the reference period and how the right applies to agency workers, and the timings are to be updated after that consultation. The umbrella company regulation measures are listed for 2027. Our timeline guide carries every date with its source as the government confirms them.

Your questions, answered.

Does the twelve-week clock restart if a temp has a week off?

No. A break of up to six weeks pauses the clock, which then carries on where it left off. Only a break of more than six weeks, a new hirer or a substantively different role resets it to zero.