In his seminal work on vicarious liability Atiyah questioned whether vicarious liability should extend to the actions of independent contractors. He noted that there was much to be said on both sides of the argument but observed that it had been argued that:

Atiyah's concerns seem all the more relevant given contemporary working practices where many businesses have become increasingly dependent on the contribution of workers, and other service providers, who are not employees. Such a phenomenon is not confined to one country but occurs globally. The construction industry provides a particularly good example here. A builder may well remain responsible to the client for the completion of the project but is unlikely to rely solely upon his own employees. Various elements of the work may well be subcontracted, some of which may be subject to further subcontracting. It is also noteworthy that there may be a great deal of variance between the resources possessed by the subcontractors involved.