TUPE in cleaning tenders: a guide for contractors

By Faisal Rehman · Published 8 October 2026 · About 7 minutes

When a cleaning contract changes hands, the cleaners usually come with it. That is TUPE. Price a re-tendered contract on your own standard rates and hours, and you can win a contract that loses money from the first week.

Not legal advice. A plain-English summary of the rules in Great Britain as at 8 October 2026, with short notes on Northern Ireland and Ireland. Whether TUPE applies depends on the facts of each contract; take advice from an employment lawyer or HR adviser before relying on it. Acas publishes free guidance at acas.org.uk/tupe.

What TUPE is

TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, amended in 2014. It protects employees when their work moves to a new employer. For contractors, the key part is the service provision change, which covers three situations:

• a client contracts out a service it used to do itself;
• a contract moves from one contractor to another (a re-tender);
• a client brings a contracted-out service back in-house.

For a service provision change to apply, there must be an organised grouping of employees in Great Britain whose principal purpose is carrying out the activities for that client, and the activities after the change must be fundamentally the same. It does not apply to a single specific event or a task of short-term duration, or to activities that consist wholly or mainly of supplying goods.

A typical school, office or council cleaning contract, with a team of cleaners who work mainly on that client's sites, fits this pattern well, which is why many cleaning tender packs include a TUPE statement and a staff list. Less clear cases include cleaners who spread their time across many clients, or a contract that is split into several lots going to different contractors.

What transfers to you

• The employees assigned to the organised grouping immediately before the transfer. An employee can object to transferring; their employment then ends without it being treated as a dismissal.
• Their contracts: pay, hours, holiday entitlement, contractual sick pay, overtime rates and other terms, plus their continuous service, which affects redundancy and unfair dismissal rights.
• Liabilities connected with those contracts, including claims that arise from before the transfer.

You cannot simply move transferring staff onto your own terms. A change to their contract is void if the sole or principal reason is the transfer, unless it is for an "economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce" or the contract itself allows the change. A dismissal is automatically unfair if the sole or principal reason is the transfer, unless the same kind of reason applies. In practice: assume the incumbent workforce arrives on its current terms, and price that.

The information you should get

By law, the outgoing employer must give the incoming employer employee liability information at least 28 days before the transfer. This includes each employee's identity and age, their written statement of employment particulars, disciplinary and grievance cases in the last two years, claims, and any collective agreements that will apply after the transfer.

That arrives after the contract is awarded, which is too late for pricing. So buyers usually include an anonymised staff list in the tender pack, supplied by the incumbent. Check that it shows, for each person:

• contracted hours per week and pattern (term-time only or all year);
• hourly rate and any allowances or enhancements;
• start date or length of continuous service;
• holiday entitlement above the statutory minimum;
• contractual sick pay;
• pension scheme membership and the employer contribution rate.

Lists often carry an accuracy disclaimer, so price any gaps as a risk or raise them as questions.

A real example: a secondary-school cleaning tender published on Find a Tender in September 2026 stated that TUPE was expected to apply to 8 employees from 2 employers (7 from the outgoing contractor and 1 employed by the school), and that one employee was in the Local Government Pension Scheme with an employer contribution rate of 18.4%. That single line changes the cost of one post considerably.

Pensions

Rights under an occupational pension scheme relating to old age, invalidity and survivors' benefits do not transfer under TUPE itself. But under the Pensions Act 2004, if the outgoing employer offered an occupational scheme with employer contributions, the new employer must offer a minimum level of pension provision. One common way is to match the employee's contributions up to 6% of basic pay.

Staff who were originally transferred out of the public sector may have stronger protection, for example continued membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme through an admission agreement, or under the government's Fair Deal policy. If the pack is silent, ask: the employer rate can be far higher than a typical workplace pension.

Informing and consulting

Both the outgoing and incoming employers must inform, and where measures are planned consult, appropriate representatives of the affected employees. The incoming employer must tell the outgoing one about any measures it plans, such as rota changes. Very small employers with fewer than 10 employees can inform and consult staff directly where there are no representatives; allow time for this in mobilisation.

How to price a contract with TUPE

1. Cost every transferring post at its current rate, hours and terms, then apply expected wage increases, including the National Living Wage rise each April, for every contract year.
2. Add employer's National Insurance, the pension cost that will actually apply, holiday above the statutory minimum and contractual sick pay.
3. Check whether the transferring hours match the hours the new specification needs. If the buyer wants fewer hours, any reduction is a change you must manage lawfully, which is slow and can be costly.
4. Allow for liabilities you inherit, such as accrued holiday and the redundancy cost of long-serving staff if the contract ends.

Questions to ask before the clarification deadline

• Is the staff list current, and when was it produced?
• Are any staff on long-term sick leave, maternity leave or a disciplinary process?
• Which pension scheme does each person belong to, and at what employer rate?
• Are there any collective agreements or recognised trade unions?
• Who employs each person now: the outgoing contractor or the client?

Northern Ireland and Ireland

TUPE's service provision change rules cover Great Britain. Northern Ireland has its own regulations for service provision changes, with broadly similar effect. In Ireland, transfers are governed by the European Communities (Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings) Regulations 2003; Irish law has no separate service provision change rule, so a change of cleaning contractor may or may not be a transfer depending on the facts. Take local advice for contracts in either jurisdiction.

Related: How to win public sector cleaning contracts · Tender go/no-go checklist · Open cleaning tenders

Sources: SI 2006/246 as amended, the Pensions Act 2004 and SI 2005/649 (legislation.gov.uk). School example: Find a Tender notice 090773-2026, Open Government Licence v3.0.