Recruitment Services

In order to help speed up processes and find the best talent, employers are increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist with recruitment. However, concerns could arise under data protection law, if the use of some features of these tools lead to discrimination based on the inference of special category data, such as race or religion. Such categories of personal data will often also constitute protected characteristics for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.

The recruitment sector is a good barometer of change in the jobs market and can hit headwinds when employers put on the brakes when it comes to hiring. It remains to be seen just how hard the sector gets hit this year with businesses expressing some concern about the impact of the increase in employer National Insurance (NI) from 6 April 2025 and the new Employment Rights Bill changes.

On 4 March 2025, HM Treasury published the Government's response to the consultation on tackling non-compliance in the umbrella company market, which the Government says deprives workers of employment rights, distorts competition in the labour market, and leads to significant tax loss to the Exchequer.