We are becoming increasingly concerned by the assumption by clients that, because their subcontractors hold their own insurance, they are regarded as ‘bona fide’. Insurers see bona fide subcontractors as only a contingent risk because, in taking on a job, they are bearing the public or product liability risk themselves, and so the cost of insurance is lower. On the other side of the coin, with ‘labour only’ subcontractors, insurers take on the full risk of public, product and employer’s liability.