News

The announcement in the press that a recruitment agency and its directors are being pursued for £10 Million by HMRC under the Managed Service Companies (“MSC”) legislation acts as a stark warning that by working with companies falling within the scope of this legislation, agencies are exposing themselves to significant financial and reputational risk. The […]

Recruitment consultants and HR managers seized the opportunity to influence government guidance on the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) 2010 in an interactive meeting hosted by the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC) and key representatives from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) on 12 April. The draft guidance was issued on 4 April, with […]

On 24 February 2011, Lord Davies reported on his independent review on the subject of women in the boardroom. Current trends show that in the top FTSE 100 companies women hold only 12.5% of the directorships. Lord Davies is recommending in his report for government that UK listed companies in the FTSE 100 should be […]

Speculation about what George Osborne had in store for post-recession UK ended with the announcement of the budget on Wednesday 23 March 2011. For recruiters, the highlights of the budget are likely to be as follows: Corporation tax is to be reduced in April 2011 by 2% and will continue to fall by 1% for […]

As a general rule positive discrimination (whereby an individual is favoured because they have a certain characteristic e.g. are of a particular race) is still in most cases discrimination because by nature this involves treating persons who do not have that characteristic less favourably. There are some areas of discrimination law where very limited positive […]

The Government has now published its long awaited guidance on the Bribery Act. The legislation has been delayed by the guidance, and will now come into force on 1st July 2011, leaving organisations with 3 months to implement any appropriate policies and procedures. The Act creates specific offences of ‘offering’ or making a bribe, of […]

The government has announced that the workers registration scheme will close after 30th April 2011, having been in operation for 7 years.  The scheme currently requires that nationals of the A8 countries, namely the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, register with the Home Office if working for an employer in […]

Two cases from the end of last year are worth noting for their conclusions as regards the payment of bonuses. In Humphreys v Norlisk Nickel International the claimant, an economist, was hired on a one year contract to provide the Respondent with economic advice relating to the mining industry. At the conclusion of the first […]

1. Employment Status The EAT has determined a new case on employment status and confirmed the position that where there are no mutual obligations to accept and offer work on either party; there is no employment relationship. In the case of Knight v BCCP, a taxi driver working for a taxi firm had his contract […]

Have you got any employees who have children due on or after 3rd April 2011? If you do then you could receive a request for additional paternity leave. Additional paternity leave is a period of up to 6 months which can be taken by the father of a child or the mother’s partner in order […]

From 1st March 2011, the Advertising Standards Authority (“ASA”) is able to take action against companies which publish misleading claims on their own websites and any other spaces they control, for example on social media websites. Prior to March 2011, the ASA was only able to monitor paid for space. This extension of power is […]

A recent survey by the CIPD has underlined how important the recent government consultation on the reform of the Employment Tribunals system and ‘resolving workplace disputes’ will be. According to the figures in their ‘Conflict Management’ report published earlier in March more than two out of three employers (69%) believe that they have no effective […]

March was a month of highs and lows for contractors and their tax affairs. In the first half of the month the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) released its review of small business taxation including IR35. The report had been eagerly anticipated by the contracting community and particularly the Professional Contractors Group, which has long […]

Commenting on the draft guidance, which the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) is due to publish for comment today, Adrian Marlowe, Chair of the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC), said “BIS has worked very hard to produce guidance that is intended to help everyone understand the Regulations, and the ARC has provided significant […]