The recruitment freeze in the City is beginning to thaw with firms cautiously hiring again after the financial crisis, according to recruiters.

Momentum gained in the employment market in June has been maintained through July, once the seasonal summer slowdown is taken into account, figures released yesterday by Morgan Mckinley, a recruiter in the Square Mile, show. (more…)

If you are an IT Contractor, then this article is for you. It will help you ask the right questions choose which IT Agency / Consultancy to contract through. (more…)

 Umbrella company contractors could be in line for further flak from the taxman if they find themselves in the ‘crossfire’ between their umbrellas and the taxman. Contractors are even being encouraged to ‘shop’ their umbrella companies over things like being too free and easy with their expenses dispensations.

HMRC has just released a briefing – Revenue & Customs Brief 50/09 – in which it unambiguously announces its intention to step up investigations of what it perceives as abuses of expenses and dispensation rules by umbrella companies. (more…)

As a market for IT recruitment, the UK is showing the first tentative signs of growth in the long-term, in spite of a reduction in the current number of contract roles.

Second quarter research from the IT Job Board reveals that, despite the bright spots to come, the supply of work for all IT workers is at least half of the size it was last year. (more…)

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Suppliers to a state IT contractor who would normally be cashing their invoices were out of pocket last night following its decision to double the time it takes to pay them.

Northgate Information Solutions, which boasts a strong portfolio of public sector IT contracts, said suppliers would have to wait 60 days, up from 30 days, to be paid. (more…)

The British taxman has enlisted its two main IT contractors to assess the viability of offshoring, in a move that could pave the way for tax forms to be processed overseas.

HM Revenue & Customs approached Capgemini and Fujitsu six months ago about its Quantum project – an internal initiative to yield savings, mainly in IT, of £205million. (more…)

For amounting to no more than a business discussion, a series of emails and phone calls between a provider of services and a repeat end-user fell short of establishing a contract.

Issuing the ruling, the Court of Appeal said the communications between the parties did not contain either enough details, such as fees, or the elements necessary to form a contract. (more…)

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, has written to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson calling for implementation of the Agency Workers Directive to be delayed until the last possible date, October 2011.

Economic recovery will be undermined unless the government draws back from introducing new rights for agency workers in a way that damages the UK’s flexible labour market, Frost says in his letter. (more…)

According to campaigners the withdrawal of a crucial “safety valve” in the tax system will leave dozens of small business people who have lost track of their tax affairs facing ruin.

The Finance Act is set to put a stop to a long-standing concession, which, in extreme cases, allows the Revenue to scale back excessive tax demands issued in response to a failure to file tax returns. (more…)