The reason for the delay is understood to be that Department for Business is still considering how best to draft and implement the changes it has in mind taking into account available time to run a new Bill through Parliament.

Consultation
In the meantime BIS has confirmed that it will shortly be publishing individual responses to the consultation, which closed earlier this year. It also intends to make public details of the interim enforcement regime, which will apply until any new legislation comes into force.

Ben Grover, External Policy Adviser for the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC), said: “The ARC recognised in its response to the consultation earlier this year that legislation could benefit from some updating to ensure that it works for the industry in the 21st century - after all the Employment Agencies Act is 40 years old and the regulations themselves are 10 years old.

"However ARC has always maintained that it is important that the fundamental principles of the existing rules, which have helped create an industry where compliance and the interests of candidates and clients remain paramount, are not changed just for the sake of it. Against that backdrop we have argued that some rules need updating to reflect certain developments.

"But a wide scale modernisation would always in our view be an ambitious task. Given that many existing rules work well, and the importance of getting things right, the delay is not hugely surprising."

The ARC has confirmed that its legal team remains willing to assist BIS in its drafting of definitions for the new legislation, terminology being an important part of the modernisation.

For background information and further reports on this subject, see Shout99's section dedicated to News on Agents.

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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2013