Short answer. PUWER 1998 puts duties on the employer and on anyone who has control of work equipment, not on a worker simply because they are self-employed. If a platform or company provides equipment, such as a delivery scooter, a hand-truck or a power tool, or directs how it is used, it normally carries PUWER duties for that equipment whatever the worker's employment status. Where a self-employed person supplies and uses their own equipment entirely on their own terms, the duty sits with them as the person in control of it.
What PUWER Actually Requires
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER), backed by the ACOP L22, require that:
- Work equipment is safe: designed, constructed and maintained to prevent risks from hazards (regulation 5)
- Equipment is suitable for the work it is used for, and not overloaded, worn out or improvised
- Users are trained and understand the equipment well enough to use it safely
- Equipment is inspected and maintained, with records kept where a significant risk depends on correct installation or could deteriorate (regulations 5 and 6)
- Hazards are managed through guarding, interlocks and emergency stops (regulation 11)
For a standard employment relationship, this is straightforward: the employer is responsible, maintains the equipment, trains people and keeps records. For gig economy and contractor arrangements, the question is who counts as "the employer" or "the person in control", and the answer is broader than most platforms would like.
Who Actually Carries the Duty
PUWER doesn't only bind employers in the traditional sense. Regulation 3 extends the duties in two directions that matter here. First, a self-employed person carries the same PUWER duties as an employer in relation to the equipment they use at work: if you're self-employed and you own and operate your own van, tools or machinery, the safety of that equipment is your responsibility, not anyone else's, purely because you are self-employed.
Second, and more importantly for gig work, PUWER extends duties to any person who has control, to any extent, of work equipment, its use, or the way it is used. A platform or company that supplies a scooter, a delivery vehicle or a power tool to someone working for it is, for that equipment, in the same position as an employer. Calling the worker "self-employed" does not remove that duty: it attaches to whoever controls the equipment, not to whoever signs the contract.
The position is genuinely less clear-cut where a worker supplies their own equipment entirely on their own terms. Even then, a company that directs how the work is done, setting routes, methods or schedules, can end up with a share of control over how that equipment is used, and with it a share of the duty. The safer assumption for any business relying on self-employed or gig workers is to work out, equipment item by equipment item, who actually provides it and who actually controls how it is used, rather than relying on employment status alone.
What This Means in Practice
If you provide equipment to workers, whatever their employment status, treat it as covered by PUWER. That means a documented maintenance schedule, regular inspection with records, equipment that is suitable for the work and not overloaded or improvised, the guards, interlocks and emergency stops PUWER requires, and instructions the user actually understands. Handing someone a scooter or a power tool with no maintenance history and no instruction is not a grey area: it is a PUWER duty simply left undone.
If a worker supplies their own equipment, put in writing that maintenance is their responsibility and what you expect that to look like. But if you also control how the work is carried out, routes, timing, methods, review whether that gives you a share of responsibility for the equipment used to do it. Where the answer isn't obvious, get that assessed rather than assuming the contract wording settles it.
Training is the area gig economy operators most often get wrong. A brief explanation on someone's first day is not training for PUWER purposes. If a worker is using equipment, yours or theirs, under your direction, you should be able to show they were trained to use it safely and that the training is documented.
Where equipment and contractor status overlap, a PUWER risk assessment is the quickest way to establish who actually carries the duty for each piece of equipment in use, and to close the gap before an inspection or an incident does it for you.