HR News

The volume of health and safety regulations will be halved over the next three years as the government accepts all 19 recommendations of a review into simplifying health and safety law - and work on this will start very soon.

Pensions auto-enrolment for small businesses (those with fewer than 50 employees) is being delayed by one year to give them more time to prepare. They will begin automatically enrolling their staff in May 2015 instead of in April 2014.

From April 2012 a new ‘youth contract’ initiative will aim to tackle the high levels of youth unemployment through the creation of 400,000 work and training placements. It will offer subsidies of £2,275 to employers in England, Scotland and Wales that take on workers aged between 18 and 24 for six months.

The Business Secretary has unveiled what he claims to be ‘the most radical reform to employment law for decades’. Some of the reforms announced have been heavily trailed beforehand but many are new. We now face, among other things, changes in redundancy consultation periods, the simplification of compromise agreements, and the compulsory referral of every case to ACAS before it goes to tribunal. While we know some definite changes and dates, many will depend on consultations yet to come. If everything now being proposed comes into effect, employment law faces a turbulent time in the coming months/years. The proposals are looked at in detail in LawTracker under the headings Employment law reforms and Employment tribunal reforms. See also 'Employment law reforms - a price worth paying?'.

A major review of how sickness absence is dealt with has recommended that an independent assessment service, and not GPs, should deal with return-to-work assessments. And employers should get tax breaks if they employ people with long-term health problems. The report is likely to generate much debate. The government has said it will consider the report and publish a response next year.