Consultation Hub

We asked for views on proposals to simplify the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations. We also asked whether we should ban employment agencies and businesses from recruiting solely from other European Economic Area (EEA) countries without advertising in Great Britain.

We received 30 responses to the consultation. Respondents were in favour with the majority of proposals but felt that our proposal to remove regulation 27 (which determines the circumstances in which an employment agency can advertise a position) would have a negative impact on vulnerable people looking for work.

We intend to simplify the regulation for businesses while retaining protections for work-seekers. We will:

• remove regulations 9, 11 and 17 and schedule 6, and amend regulation 23 and schedules 4 and 5 which cover business to business activity
• amend regulation 27A to ban employment agencies and businesses from recruiting solely from other European Economic Area (EEA) countries without advertising in Great Britain

Due to concerns raised during the consultation we have decided to keep regulation 27.

We asked for your views on whether the government should devolve Sunday trading rules to local areas, such as cities run by elected mayors and/or local authorities.

We received over 7,000 responses to our consultation. The majority of respondents to the consultation from local authorities, business representative organisations and large and medium business respondents were in favour of our proposal to devolve the power to make decisions on extending Sunday trading hours to a local level. However, Trade Unions, religious bodies and a number of small businesses and individuals who responded were against the proposals.

We propose to devolve the power to extend Sunday trading hours:

• in England to all unitary and shire district councils
• in Wales to all county and county borough councils
• to the mayors of London and Greater Manchester
• to the mayors established through any future devolution deals, once elected

We will also strengthen the rights of shop workers to ’opt-out‘ of working Sundays, if they choose. These rights will apply in England, Wales and Scotland, whereas the Sunday trading rules apply in England and Wales only.

We will bring forward these measures through amendments to the Enterprise Bill.

We invited views on proposed changes to Employment Tribunal postponements rules, to help reduce delays and costs in the process.

We received 33 responses to the consultation. You felt that repeated and late postponements could be financially and emotionally costly, but that on occasions a postponement was unavoidable or made sense.

We are changing tribunal postponement rules to:

• limit the number of postponements that can be granted other than in exceptional circumstances
• introduce a deadline after which applications for the postponement of a hearing would only be allowed in exceptional circumstances
• place an obligation on tribunals to consider granting costs orders where late notice postponements are granted