Agencies will have to inform clients if they discover a temp is unsuitable for a role under the new Employment Agencies Act rules.

The rules are designed to protect children and vulnerable adults from supply teachers or part-time nurses who have a history of misconduct. If an agency discovers information within three months of an introduction to a client, it must inform them immediately.

The scandal of Amy Gehring, a supply teacher who was alleged to have behaved inappropriately with some of her pupils in 2002, led to the introduction of these rules.

Timeplan, which placed Gehring, failed to pass on a warning from the child protection agency that she could have been unsuitable.