UK: Employment law reform - timetable for tribunal reform, Queen's speech, DBS certificates, consultation on equal pay audits

• The Government has confirmed that revised employment tribunal rules and fees for employment tribunal claims will apply from 29 July 2013. The new rules are available here. We are preparing a briefing on the new rules which will be available shortly.
• The Queen's Speech included only a few proposals relevant to employment law: increased fines for employing illegal workers, a £2,000 employment allowance to set against the NIC bill, stronger legislation to prevent the use of offshore employment payroll companies, the removal of the presumption of self-employment for LLP members, and the removal of employment tribunal powers to make wider recommendations (for example to update diversity policies or provide staff training) where a claimant brings a successful discrimination claim but is no longer employed.
• The Disclosure and Barring Service has announced that from 17 June 2013 individuals can subscribe to a service that will keep their criminal record certificate up to date, so that when they move jobs they can provide their previous DBS certificate to the new employer, who can then carry out a free online check to find out whether there have been any changes. DBS certificates will initially be sent only to the individual applicant to enable them to challenge the contents before the certificate is released to a potential employer. DBS guidance is available here.

The Government is consulting until 18 July 2013 on the proposed scope of regulations to allow tribunals to order equal pay audits where an employer loses an equal pay case, planned for 2014. The consultation seeks views on a number of areas, including the government's decision not to require employers to publish the results of their audits generally (although they will be disclosed to the employees subject to the audit) and whether the EHRC good practice guidance on how to carry out an equal pay audit will be adequate.