The direct route
Employing the person yourself, with no UK company
There is no UK and Singapore social security agreement
HMRC's employer guide for 2026 to 2027 lists the countries the UK has a social security agreement with, and Singapore isn't one of them. The guide also lists the agreements that include employer obligations, the ones that treat an employer abroad as if it were based in the UK: the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. Singapore isn't in that list either. So the UK's own rule decides whether a Singapore employer owes employer's National Insurance.
HMRC's rule is that an employer owes UK employer's National Insurance if it is resident, present or has a place of business in Great Britain. HMRC's manual lists the kind of evidence it looks for, such as a registered office in the UK, fixed premises in the UK, a UK bank account, or the company paying the employee's rent or mortgage, and whether an employer meets the test is a matter of fact.
The DPNI route
A Singapore company with no UK place of business has two routes, and on both the company stays the employer. HMRC's manual PAYE20100 lists "A foreign employer who has no address in the United Kingdom from which earnings are paid" among the cases a DPNI is for. The employee sets up a DPNI and pays both their income tax and their employee National Insurance to HMRC under one PAYE reference. We will ask HMRC for the scheme that fits your facts, and they may suggest a different one once they have the full facts.
A direct payment scheme doesn't work like an ordinary payroll. HMRC send the employee a deductions working sheet, the employee fills it in, and the tax and National Insurance payments go to HMRC from them. So you pay the gross salary and don't take any UK tax or National Insurance off it. We do the sums, tell them what's due and when, and they pay HMRC.
One exception to watch: if your employee is made available to work in a UK business, such as a UK client, HMRC's employer guide says that UK business must pay the employer's and the employee's National Insurance instead, where no agreement with employer obligations covers the employee.
Someone you send over from Singapore
A local UK hire is in the UK system from the start. Someone you send here for a while is different. For an employee who doesn't normally live or work in the UK and whom you send here temporarily, HMRC's employer guide says National Insurance isn't payable for the first 52 weeks, counted from the first Sunday after they arrive. After those 52 weeks, UK National Insurance is due in the normal way.
Or run UK PAYE in the company's own name
A company with no UK presence doesn't have to run UK PAYE, but it can choose to run it in its own name. Then the company takes the employee's income tax off their pay through its own payroll, and our fees are the company's cost, not the employee's. The employee's National Insurance still has to be paid: the company can pay it through its payroll if it's willing to and HMRC agree, and if not, the employee pays it directly.
A UK PAYE scheme in the company's own name starts at £225 a month plus £8 per payslip, and setting it up costs £350.