Most contractor vetting stops at the tender pack. The pack tells you what the contractor wants you to know. This is how to find out the rest.
It’s written for the people who appoint and manage cleaning subcontractors: facilities companies that win contracts and sub out the work, and the managing agents, housing providers, schools and estates responsible for the sites. The aim is a vetting process that’s quick for a good contractor, and hard for a weak one to get through.
Check competence yourself. Don’t assume it. The depth of your checks should follow the risk of the work.
How deep to go
The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on using contractors starts from a simple principle: the level of enquiry should match the level of risk and the complexity of the job. A weekly clean of a small office isn’t a hospital ward, and treating them the same wastes everyone’s time.
| Tier | Typical work | How far to go |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Routine | Offices, retail, daytime, no vulnerable people, no specialist tasks | The six checks below, a desk review and a reference call |
| 2. Elevated | Out-of-hours with keys and alarms, multi-site, food areas, work at height, school or housing sites | The six checks, a site visit, site-specific RAMS, accreditation, a trial period |
| 3. High | Healthcare, vulnerable adults or children, waste, biohazard, specialist or hazardous work | Everything above, plus enhanced vetting of people, evidence of specialist competence and a pre-start audit |
Decide the tier before you ask for anything. It’s also the answer when a contractor says your process is heavier than the last client’s.
The six checks
1. Current insurance certificates, checked, not just listed
A contractor saying they’re insured is a claim. A certificate you’ve read is evidence. What to look at:
- Employers’ liability. The legal minimum is £5 million from an authorised insurer, and the fine for being without it is up to £2,500 a day. A contractor who employs people and can’t produce one has a bigger problem than paperwork. A separate fine of up to £1,000 applies if the certificate isn’t displayed or available.
- Public liability. Check the limit against your own requirement, the policy period, and that the insured entity is the one contracting with you, not a sister company or a trading name.
- Exclusions and conditions. Is the work you’re asking for covered? Specialist tasks, work at height and chemical treatments are the ones that fall off standard policies.
- The insurer. Confirm it’s authorised. The Financial Conduct Authority’s register tells you.
- The expiry date. Put it in a diary at approval, not after the crew has arrived. A certificate that was valid at the tender is the one most likely to have lapsed by month nine.
Red flag: a certificate in a different company name, or one that expires next week and hasn’t been renewed.
2. Waste carrier registration
If the contractor carries waste that isn’t its own, such as a clearance, bulk waste or a skip, it needs a waste carrier registration. Upper tier registration renews every three years, and anyone can check a registration on the Environment Agency’s public register. Look up the number, the tier and the expiry. Then ask where the waste goes and how transfers are documented, because the duty of care for waste you generate doesn’t end when the contractor’s van drives off.
Red flag: “we’ve applied.” Where registration is a requirement of the contract, an application in progress isn’t a registration.
3. References you actually call
References are the cheapest piece of evidence you can collect and the one most often skipped. Do it properly:
- Ask for three, including one from a client who left and one of a similar size and type to yours.
- Get the contact through the client’s own switchboard or website, not just the number the contractor gives you.
- Ask the same questions every time: What do they do for you? How long? How many visits have been missed in the last six months, and how quickly were they covered? Who do you ring, and do they pick up? How do they handle a complaint? Would you appoint them again?
- Listen for specifics. “They’re great” is a courtesy. “They covered a no-show within two hours and told us before we noticed” is information.
4. A site visit before they price
Never accept a price for a site the contractor hasn’t seen. A price built from a floor plan and a square-metre rate tells you how well they can estimate. A visit tells you how they think. Watch what they ask about: access and keys, alarm codes, waste routes, high-touch areas, the out-of-hours dynamics, who’s on site when. The contractor who asks nothing isn’t confident, they’re uninterested.
It also protects your price. A contractor who has seen the site can’t later find “hidden” hours in it. Afterwards, ask for site-specific risk assessments and method statements. A generic RAMS tells you they can copy and paste. A specific one tells you they looked.
5. How they handle a missed clean
Every contractor misses a clean eventually. The question is what happens next. Don’t ask in the abstract. Give them a scenario: A cleaner calls in sick at 5am for a site that opens at 7. Walk me through it. You’re listening for:
- Who finds out first, and how.
- Who is covering, from where, and how fast.
- Who tells you, and when. It should be before you notice.
- How it’s logged, and what changes afterwards.
Then ask for a real example from the last quarter. A contractor who has never missed a clean either isn’t counting or isn’t telling you.
6. How long their staff stay
Continuity is the cheapest form of quality. The same people on the same site know where things are, what the client expects and what “normal” looks like. Ask for the contractor’s own retention figure, how long their supervisors have been in role, and whether the team on your site will still be the team in six months. Published turnover estimates for the cleaning sector vary widely and none is authoritative, so don’t benchmark. Ask for theirs, and ask for the trend.
Red flag: a contractor who can’t tell you how many people left last year.
What sits around the six
These come up on every approval, and they’re the ones that damage your own reputation if they’re wrong.
- Right to work. Employing someone without the proper check carries a civil penalty of up to £45,000 per worker for a first breach and £60,000 for a repeat, and it’s your contractor’s workforce on your site. Ask how they check and to see a sample record.
- DBS. A Basic check is available to anyone over 16. Standard and Enhanced depend on the role and on whether the organisation requesting is legally entitled to ask, so decide what your site requires and ask what each person holds, and when it was issued.
- Health and safety. A policy reviewed in the last year, COSHH assessments for every product used, and an accreditation under SSIP (CHAS, SafeContractor, Constructionline and others), which lets member schemes recognise each other’s assessments. Check which one your own client accepts.
- Pay and policy. Modern slavery is a statutory reporting duty only for organisations with a turnover of £36 million or more, but you should still ask a contractor’s policy, how they recruit and pay, and any commitment to the Real Living Wage.
- The chain below them. Do they subcontract further? If so, who, and have those businesses been through the same checks? Your risk goes as far down the chain as the work does.
- Financial stability. Filed accounts, and the size of your contract relative to their turnover. A contractor that’s about to double its workload with your contract needs a plan.
A scorecard you can use tomorrow
Score each area 0 (missing), 1 (present, but not verified) or 2 (verified by you). Weight it to the tier. A contractor who scores 2 across the board is rare. A contractor who has any 0 in the first six should wait.
| Area | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insurance | No certificate | Certificate listed, not checked | Certificate read, limits and entity match, expiry diarised |
| Waste carrier | Needed, none held | Number given | Looked up on the public register |
| References | None | Given, not called | Three called, one lapsed client |
| Site visit | Priced blind | Visited, generic RAMS | Visited, site-specific RAMS |
| Missed clean | No process | Process described | Process described, and a real example |
| Staff retention | Doesn’t know | Quoted, no trend | Figure and trend, supervisor continuity |
| People | No checks | Checks described | Right-to-work and DBS records sampled |
| Health and safety | No policy | Policy only | Policy, COSHH, accreditation you accept |
Trial, contract and review
The HSE’s guidance treats selection as one stage of four: plan, select, control and review. Selection isn’t the end.
- Start with a trial. Four to eight weeks on one or two sites, with agreed measures: visits attended, visits approved first time, complaints and time to resolve, staff changes. A contractor who objects to measures is telling you something.
- Write the evidence into the contract. Check-in and check-out per visit, photographs or notes as proof, approval before invoicing, audit rights, notice of staff changes, and the same flow-down obligations for any sub-subcontractor.
- Pay on time. Late payment degrades quality faster than anything else in a subcontract, and public sector contracts carry a 30-day payment expectation that’s meant to pass down the chain.
- Review on a schedule. Quarterly for the first year, then six-monthly, using the same scorecard.
Keeping the answer current
Everything above is a snapshot. An insurance certificate that was valid at approval can lapse in month nine, and the person who held the folder may have left. Your real exposure is the time between the lapse and anybody noticing.
That’s the problem Cadi Connect is built for. Each contractor holds its compliance in one place, with every document dated and flagged before it lapses, so when procurement, your client or your auditor asks for the pack, it’s already assembled. Every visit is checked in on site with the time and place, evidence is attached, and the visit is approved before the invoice is released. You see the contractor’s compliance, the work you’ve given them and the record behind it, and never their other customers, their prices or their books. It’s free for contractors, permanently, so saying yes to your onboarding costs them nothing.
Common questions about vetting a cleaning contractor
How do I vet a cleaning contractor?
Go beyond the tender pack with six checks: read current insurance certificates rather than taking the contractor’s word, check waste carrier registration where it applies, call references, visit the site before they price, ask how they handle a missed clean, and ask how long their staff stay. Then score each area 0, 1 or 2 and decide how far to go based on the risk of the work.
How far should I go when checking a cleaning contractor?
Match the depth of your checks to the risk of the work, which is the principle behind HSE’s guidance on using contractors. A routine daytime office clean needs the six checks, a desk review and a reference call. Out-of-hours, multi-site, food, work at height, school and housing sites need a site visit, site-specific risk assessments, accreditation and a trial period. Healthcare, vulnerable people and hazardous work need enhanced vetting on top.
Does a cleaning contractor need a waste carrier registration?
If the contractor carries waste that isn’t its own, such as a clearance, bulk waste or a skip, yes. Upper tier registration renews every three years, and anyone can look up a registration on the Environment Agency’s public register. Check the number, the tier and the expiry, and ask where the waste goes and how transfers are documented. “We’ve applied” isn’t a registration.
Why should a contractor visit the site before they price?
A price built from a floor plan and a square-metre rate tells you how well they can estimate, while a visit tells you how they think. A contractor who has seen the site can’t later find hidden hours in it, and you can ask for site-specific risk assessments and method statements afterwards. A generic RAMS shows they can copy and paste.
How do I keep a contractor’s compliance up to date?
Treat every check as a snapshot. An insurance certificate valid at approval can lapse in month nine, and your real exposure is the gap between the lapse and anyone noticing. Diarise expiry dates, or use a record such as Cadi Connect that holds each contractor’s documents in one place, dated and flagged before they lapse.
How should I score cleaning contractors?
Score each area 0 (missing), 1 (present but not verified) or 2 (verified by you), and weight it to the risk tier. The areas are insurance, waste carrier, references, site visit, missed-clean process, staff retention, people checks and health and safety. A contractor with a 0 in any of the first six should wait.
Sources, checked 4 November 2026
- Using contractors: a brief guide, HSE
- Register as a waste carrier, broker or dealer, GOV.UK
- Environment Agency public register
- Check a job applicant’s right to work, GOV.UK
General guidance, not legal advice. Requirements depend on the contract, the site and the work.
See it with your own sites in it. Book a Cadi Connect demo, built on your actual contracts, suppliers and frequencies, or run the Contractor Risk Check first.
The Cadi Connect team
