Tag Archives: Contracting News

In terms of business related perks company pension plans were favoured by 15% of respondents, making them the third most popular benefit. Other benefits to gain a mention included social / humanitarian work with 7%, exposure to advanced networking / social activities with 6% and paid training and developments with 6%. The Head of Human […]

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s Head of Policy, Anne Fairweather, said that “The REC will be making immediate representations to ensure that the industry’s concerns are taken on board and that the vital role of agency work is well understood. The current economic climate makes it more important than ever to implement the regulations in […]

The announcement will no doubt be digested by civil servants working in the Home Office who are currently working out how best to introduce and Immigration Cap on those from outside the European Economic Area without negatively affecting UK businesses or the economic recovery. At present a number of engineering roles in the electricity generation, […]

The Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development’s Employee Relations Advisor, Mike Emmott, said that “We believe that the Working Time Regulations in particular have negligible value in limiting unhealthy workplace behaviour. We are, therefore, calling for its repeal in the context of the review currently being undertaken by the European Commission.\” The European Working Time […]

In the Chancellor’s recent statement on budget cuts, Mr Osborne announced measures to save £95 million through a reduction in IT spending, £120 million through a civil service recruitment freeze and £1.2 billion from local government. Although the proposed cuts in Public Sector Expenditure are not ideal the majority of IT contractors would prefer significant […]

A recent trading statement said that “Cumulatively, trading in the first four months of the year was in line with management’s expectations, despite slower than expected trading in April. Since the year end HCL has a won a number of new key contracts for its UK locum divisions, from large NHS and PCT operators across […]

Professional Contractors Group Response to Queens Speech The Managing Director of the Professional Contractors Group, John Brazier, said that “This builds on the Government’s announcement to seek a replacement for IR35. By all accounts, the momentum is clearly building to consign this unfair and unclear piece of legislation to the scrapheap. In particular we warmly […]

In March 2010 while in opposition with the Conservatives, Mr Prisk wrote to the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) to set out the party’s stance on the issues of IR35 and small business taxation. In the letter he said that “I am pleased to confirm that, if elected, a Conservative Government would undertake a fundamental review […]

Following the formation of the new Government a coalition agreement was published which set out key joint policies. We have picked out below some of the key policies that are expected to affect contractors in the coming years. Increase in the Employers National Insurance Threshold The new Government will hold an emergency budget within 50 […]

The Director of Research at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, Roger Tweedy, said “again, our findings show the vital role agency workers are now playing in helping to sustain the fragile economic recovery and in providing a bridge in capacity until employers begin to grow their permanent workforces more significantly in the autumn. The current demand […]