---
title: Suppliers and your supply chain
canonical_url: https://hrhive.co.uk/product/supply-chain/
content_type: product
summary: HRHive records each supplier by arrangement and tier. It asks for the signed right to work written statement before work starts, holds back substitutes and workers until they are verified, and tracks assurances, audits and insurance expiry. It keeps a chain register and an identity sign-in log. It does not rebuild what you held on a past date.
audiences:
  - employer
  - adviser
topic: subcontractors
jurisdiction: uk
status: published
last_updated: 2026-10-05
---

# Know who is in your supply chain and what you hold for each business

> HRHive records each supplier by arrangement and tier. It asks for the signed right to work written statement before work starts, holds back substitutes and workers until they are verified, and tracks assurances, audits and insurance expiry. It keeps a chain register and an identity sign-in log. It does not rebuild what you held on a past date.

## What problem does this solve?

Work for a main contractor passes down through businesses you may never have met: your subcontractor's subcontractor, and the people they send to site. The paperwork tends to live in emails, a site diary and a folder nobody has opened since the contract was signed. When someone asks who was working on site, who checked them and what you hold for each business, finding out takes days. Under the rules on extended liability in supply chains, you can share responsibility for illegal working further down the chain.

## What HRHive does

- Records each supplier by arrangement. You subcontract work you are contracted to deliver, the supplier is a provider on your matching service, you buy a service for your own use, or an agency supplies temporary workers. From that choice and the contract date, HRHive works out whether extended liability applies, and says why.
- Records tiers. A supplier that subcontracts to another makes that one tier 2, and so on. HRHive keeps your written consent for each onward subcontract and flags it when there is none.
- Asks for the signed Right to Work Written Statement before work starts. It is a separate, titled document with six terms: right to work checks, no onward subcontracting without consent, audit, enforcement where illegal working is found, enforcement where an offence is suspected, and co-operation with the Home Office. Send it to the supplier's signatory for online signature, or print it, have it signed and upload the copy. HRHive warns you if work starts without it.
- Controls substitution. You record, supplier by supplier, whether their workers may send someone else in their place, because a contract that says nothing does not settle it. If they may, five controls must be confirmed first.
- Holds workers back until they are verified. A worker you check yourself, and any substitute, cannot be signed in or assigned until their right to work check is confirmed. HRHive records the check. It does not make it for you. Workers the supplier checks are covered by its signed assurances.
- Collects assurances and records audits. An assurance is the supplier's signed confirmation that it checked named workers over a period. An audit records what you looked at, the sample, the findings and the actions agreed, with a due date. By default HRHive expects an assurance every 90 days and an audit every 365, and you can change both.
- Tracks insurance and licences: employers' liability, public liability and professional indemnity insurance and, for labour providers in licensed sectors, a Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority licence. HRHive reminds you as expiry dates approach, and flags employers' liability cover recorded below £5 million for a business with employees.
- Keeps the chain register: every business at every tier, with its official name, company type, registered address or principal place of business and company number.
- Keeps an identity sign-in log. A site supervisor or manager confirms that the person working is the person whose right to work was checked, at least once in every 24 hours they work. Each entry records who, where, how and the result, and a mismatch alerts owners and admins at once. HRHive uses no biometrics.
- Records who worked where: site or project, dates and the manager responsible, for employees, individual subcontractors and supplier workers, with a CSV export. It is a record of who was where, not time tracking.

> **The written statement is a template**
>
> There is no prescribed form of words, and the Home Office does not approve clauses. HRHive's statement is labelled for your legal adviser to review before you use it. Terms in a contract do not protect you on their own. You also need identity checks, assurances and audits, and HRHive records all of them.

> **Dated records**
>
> HRHive shows what you hold, and when things were signed, received, audited and assigned. Produce a supplier's pack when you need to show its file, and keep a copy of what you hand over.

## How it works

1. **Add the supplier.** Enter its official name and company details, what it does, how you work with it and who it contracts with, with the date the contract was entered into and the date work starts.
2. **See whether extended liability applies.** HRHive works it out and explains why. It treats contracts entered into before 1 October 2026 as outside the rules, and flags a variation or renewal of one for a legal check.
3. **Get the statement signed before work starts.** Send it for signature or upload a signed copy.
4. **Record substitution and add the workers.** Say whether substitutes are allowed, add the workers the supplier sends and note who checks each one.
5. **Keep it current.** Ask for assurances, record audits, add insurance with its expiry date, sign workers in on site and record where each person works.
6. **Act on what HRHive finds.** A statement missing when work starts, a worker waiting for a check, an overdue assurance or audit, expiring insurance and a missing consent each become an action on Compliance and Home, and the nightly run sends reminders for them.

## What you see

Each supplier has its own page. It opens with what needs doing, then shows the arrangement and dates, the written statement, substitution, the workers the supplier sends, assurances, audits, insurance and licences, onward subcontracting, identity checks and a full history. The Suppliers list has tabs for Current, Chain of contracts, Insurance expiring and Ended.

**Supply chain**

- Oakridge Building Services Ltd (Main contractor)
  - Brick & Co (Tier 1. Work started 2 October 2026, written statement not signed.)
    - Ewa Nowak (Checked by Brick & Co, covered by assurances)
    - Danny Walsh (Substitute for Ewa Nowak. Waiting for a check, so cannot be signed in.)
  - Calder Scaffolding Ltd (Tier 1. Statement signed. Public liability insurance expires in 7 days.)
  - Sparks & Wire Electrical (Tier 1. Statement signed. Up to date.)
  - Northern Skip Hire (Service for our own use. Extended liability does not apply.)

## The record it creates

Everything is recorded against the supplier with who did it and when, and signed documents are kept with it. The Subcontractor Compliance Pack puts one supplier's evidence on A4: supplier details, arrangement and scope, the written statement, substitution, workers, assurances, audits, identity verification, documents and the actions taken.

_Example output (demo data): a Subcontractor Pack: the supplier, its contract and written statement, assurances, insurance, workers and engagement history._

For a Home Office investigation, the Home Office pack adds the Chain of Contracts Register as a PDF and a CSV, and a folder for every supplier with its pack and its signed evidence, all in one ZIP. Producing either pack is recorded in the audit log.

## Who can do what

Supplier records, evidence and packs are limited to the people who look after compliance. Site supervisors can sign workers in without seeing any of it.

| Role | What they can do |
| --- | --- |
| Owner, admin, HR and compliance | Add suppliers, send or upload the written statement, record substitution, workers, assurances, audits and insurance, sign workers in, and produce the supplier packs. |
| Manager | Signs workers in on site by confirming the person is the one who was checked. Cannot see suppliers, evidence or right to work records. |
| Auditor | Read only access to suppliers, the sign-in log and who worked where. |
| Supplier's signatory | Gets a private link to read and sign the written statement or an assurance. No HRHive account is needed. |

## What happens next

Supplier actions appear in the [compliance overview](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/compliance/) next to right to work, contracts, data protection and status, and the nightly [reminders](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/reminders/) go to owners, admins, HR and compliance. When a relationship ends, mark the supplier ended or terminated and record why. Its workers can no longer be signed in or assigned, and its records are kept. HRHive flags them for review once their retention period passes, and nothing is deleted until a person decides.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does HRHive work out whether extended liability applies to a supplier?

Yes. HRHive works it out from the arrangement you choose and the date the contract was entered into, and it shows why. A supplier's name or label does not decide it. If a contract entered into before 1 October 2026 is later varied or renewed, HRHive flags it so you can ask your legal adviser whether it is now a new arrangement.

### Does the identity sign-in use facial recognition?

No. HRHive uses no biometrics. The person signing someone in compares them with photo ID, a site pass or the photo held from their right to work check, then records the result. If you use a registered provider's identity verification, that happens outside HRHive and you record that you used it.

### Do the records show what we held for a supplier on a particular date?

Yes. HRHive records when things were signed, received, audited and assigned, and signed and completed records are locked, so they show what was known on the day. Produce the Subcontractor Compliance Pack when it matters and keep a copy.

## About this page

- Last updated: 5 October 2026

## Related

**In HRHive**

- [Right to work checks and records](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/right-to-work/)
- [Subcontractors and workers](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/subcontractors/)
- [Compliance overview](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/compliance/)
- [Reminders and expiry dates](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/reminders/)
- [Evidence packs and printable records](https://hrhive.co.uk/product/evidence-packs/)

Canonical URL: https://hrhive.co.uk/product/supply-chain/
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