If the contract between a service provider and a client terminates (because the term has ended), and the following day the client engages another service provider to provide the same services, would this amount to a service provision change, ie a relevant transfer under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006?

Consideration should be given both to whether a business transfer arises and whether a service provision change (SPC) arises under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE 2006), SI 2006/246.

See Practice Notes: TUPE—business transfers and TUPE—service provision changes.

An SPC may involve any one of three possibilities:

1. •

   outsourcing: where activities cease to be carried out by a person (‘a Client’) on his own behalf and are carried out instead by another person on the client's behalf (‘a contractor’)

2. •

   change of contractor: where activities cease to be carried out by a contractor on a client’s behalf (whether or not those activities had previously been carried out by the client on his own behalf) and are carried out instead by another person (‘a subsequent contractor’) on