Clarity is required from the Employment Agencies Act on the status of job boards and social media, according to Kevin Barrow, partner at law firm Osborne Clarke.

Last week a number of revisions to the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations, the principal piece of legislation covering the recruitment industry, came into force.

Permanent recruiters are now no longer obliged to check every permanent candidate’s credentials and references or be identified as an ‘employment agency’ in advertisements, while there is also no longer a legal obligation to obtain agreement to terms from clients and candidates.

But Barrow told Recruiter a particularly important issue relating to the new regulations is what the new regulations have not addressed, such as the status of job boards and social and professional networking sites under the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct Regulations.

Barrow said: “One of the issues which the consultation leading to these new regulations was supposed to help resolve is how the regime could be relaxed for new media like networking sites and online recruitment services (who obviously cannot check out candidates in the way the old regulations required and many of whom obviously want to monetise users of their services).

“The issue is that well known networking sites are now charging work-seekers for services which appear to be work-finding services. If that were the case they would fall within the statutory definition of the Employment Agencies Act, and it would appear to be a criminal offence for them to charge work-seekers (s6 of the EAA).

“Of course the networking sites may well say that they are just a medium through which people find jobs for themselves, or a mere publication, but that does not appear to be the view of the regulator (the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate — EASI). However, EASI are not taking action - they may have decided to turn a blind eye.

“I think this is an important issue because we now have a situation where organisations which are providing much valued services to members of the public (ie networking sites) do not know if they are committing technical offences. If and when they try to float on the New York Stock Exchange, for example, this issue will be scrutinised and it may affect their value.”