Core requirements of a service provision change

Under regulation 3(1) (b) of TUPE, a service provision change requires:

• a change in the identity of a service provider; and

• an organised grouping of employees whose principal purpose, before the transfer, was to provide that service.

The service provision change regulations apply to insourcing, outsourcing and changes of provider.

Because, unlike the rest of TUPE, the service provision regulations are not based on European law, there is no obligation to interpret them purposively (i.e. liberally) with a view to achieving the European objective of “safeguarding employees’ rights in the event of transfers of undertakings or businesses” (McCarrick v Hunter [2012] EWCA Civ 1399.