Consultancy agreement for an HR consultant

An HR consultant handles a client's most sensitive information and its most contentious decisions, often sitting in the disciplinary meeting or writing the dismissal letter, and the agreement has to keep the consultant advising rather than deciding, protect employee data that the consultant processes on the client's behalf, draw the line between HR practice and legal advice, and reflect an engagement that is self-employed in substance. For the business engaging the consultant or for the consultant's own use, the drafting is a fixed £595, delivered in five working days. Each engagement is checked against HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax tool, and the agreement cannot guarantee how an individual's status will be decided.

Who this is for

Businesses in England and Wales engaging an outsourced or freelance HR consultant for policies, processes, recruitment, employee relations or a retained HR function, and HR consultants who want an agreement to use with every client.

What matters in an HR consultant's agreement

The services and the line between HR advice and legal advice

The agreement should define the services (policies and handbooks, recruitment, onboarding, employee relations support, investigations, performance and absence management, redundancy processes, training) and say what the consultant does not provide: legal advice, representation in tribunal proceedings, and determinations of employment status, with the consultant recommending that the client takes legal advice where a matter needs it; the consultant's duty is one of reasonable care and skill under section 13 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, and the agreement should say that the client decides and the consultant advises.

Confidentiality and employee data

The consultant sees personnel files, grievances, health information and pay, which is personal data and often special category data under Article 9 of the UK GDPR, and the agreement should contain the processor terms Article 28 requires for the data the consultant handles on the client's behalf, state security under Article 32, limit the consultant's access to what each matter needs, and impose confidentiality that survives the engagement; where the consultant keeps their own records of advice given, the agreement and the consultant's privacy notice should say on what basis.

Acting in the client's processes without becoming its employer

HR consultants chair meetings, conduct investigations and write letters, and the agreement should say that they do so as the client's consultant, in the client's name and under the client's authority, that decisions on discipline, dismissal and redundancy are the client's, and that the consultant is not the employer, the decision-maker or the appeal officer unless the client expressly delegates a role in writing; a consultant who dismisses an employee in their own name has created an argument about who the employer is, and the agreement should prevent it.

Documents, templates and intellectual property

The consultant's policies, handbooks, templates and process documents are the consultant's copyright under section 11 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the agreement should license them to the client for its own use with the right to adapt them, or assign the versions produced for the client on payment under section 90, while the consultant retains the underlying templates for other clients; the client should warrant that information it supplies is accurate, and the consultant should not warrant that a template complies with law after the engagement ends.

Status and the consultant's own position

An HR consultant on a retainer, attending the client's premises and dealing with its staff, should have an agreement that reflects a self-employed engagement in substance: several clients, the consultant's own premises and equipment, control over how the services are provided, a right to substitute for defined tasks, and no obligation to offer or accept work beyond the agreement; where the consultant works through a company and the client is medium or large, the off-payroll working rules in Chapter 10 of Part 2 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 put the determination on the client, checked with HMRC's tool rather than assumed.

Payment, notice, liability and insurance

The agreement should state the fee basis (retainer with a stated allocation of time, day rate, or project fee), payment terms backed by interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, a notice period running both ways with a handover of matters in progress, liability limited to a multiple of the annual fee, consequential loss excluded, in terms that pass the reasonableness test in section 11 of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, and professional indemnity insurance at a stated level; the client's employment claims are the client's, and the consultant's exposure is for negligent advice.

What it costs

Consultancy or contractor agreement, £595. Drafted for your business. Five working days.

Template set for repeat use, £895. One master agreement plus a short-form schedule you can reuse for every engagement. Five working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the consultancy and contractor agreements page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A clear, express assignment of intellectual property to your business
• Confidentiality provisions that protect your business information
• Restrictive covenants drafted at a scope a court will uphold
• Clear treatment of status, so the arrangement is not accidentally something else
• Payment, deliverables and termination provisions that match how you work
• A reusable structure, so the next engagement costs you nothing

What is not included

• Employment status determinations and off-payroll working assessments, which need your accountant
• Tax advice
• Disputes with a contractor you have already engaged
• Immigration and right to work compliance

Questions I am often asked

Can our HR consultant chair a disciplinary hearing?

As the client's consultant acting under its authority, if the agreement delegates that role in writing, with the decision recorded as the client's. The agreement provides for delegation by matter rather than leaving it to practice.

Is the consultant liable if a dismissal they advised on leads to a tribunal claim?

To the employee, no: the claim is against the employer. To the client, for negligent advice within the cap and the professional indemnity insurance. The agreement keeps the employment liability with the client, which is where the law puts it.

Who owns the handbook the consultant wrote for us?

What the agreement says: usually the client is licensed to use and adapt its version, and the consultant keeps the underlying templates. An assignment of the client's version on payment is available if the client wants it.

Related guidance and services

• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595
• Terms and conditions for an HR consultant
• Reviewing a payroll or HR outsourcing agreement

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.