In the last few weeks, the world has continued to be dominated by President Trump’s agenda, including his plans for Greenland. At Davos the Chancellor Rachel Reeves was keen to sell the UK as a stable environment for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and to stress the UK would not be “buffeted around” by Trump tariffs. Starmer and team are off to China this week.
The Government is keen to promote 2026 as the year of delivery following the numerous strategies and plans published over 2025, most prominently the Industrial Strategy and NHS Plan for Change. More details below. However, Starmer must now deal with a by-election and an internal argument over the NEC’s decision to block Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, from standing. The justification given was it avoids a mayoralty battle against Reform in Manchester.
APSCo News
Read our blog on the latest UK economic indicators following the monthly ONS / HMRC labour market statistics.
Tania Bowers, APSCo’s Global Public Policy Director, joined Chris Bryce, CEO of the FCSA, for a discussion on the Employment Rights Act and the umbrella regulations last week. Hear what they had to say here.
While we wait for publication of further Statutory Instruments and consultations, we have written to selected peers, Ministers, Shadow Cabinets and MPs, setting out our members’ ongoing concerns following our member meeting on 8th January.
Employment Rights Act & Staffing Sector Regulation
The Employment Rights Act: How can agencies recoup short notice payments from hirers?
The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 (i.e. became law, with phased implementation to follow). The Act will provide eligible workers and agency workers with a right to reasonable notice of shifts and a right to payment for shifts cancelled, curtailed, or moved at short notice.
Further details on these measures can be foundhere.
These zero hour rights are not in force yet. The government will consult before developing final policy positions to implement the zero hours measures, which will be set out in regulations. We will share details of this consultation as soon as possible and look forward to your feedback.
Short Notice Payments
The Act will require agencies to make payments to eligible agency workers if their shifts are cancelled, rescheduled or curtailed at short notice. Short notice payments will not be required where the cancellation, movement or curtailment is initiated by the agency worker. The amount of the payment and what constitutes “short notice” will be set in regulations, together with certain eligibility criteria.
The1overnent considers that the recovery of short notice payments from hirers where they are responsible for the cancellation, curtailment or movement of shifts at short notice is a matter for business to business relationships and contractual arrangements between agencies and hirers. However, existing arrangements between agencies and hirers may not include any mechanism for the agency to recover short notice payments from hirers, and agencies might not have agreed such arrangements had they known that they would be required to make those payments. The Act therefore provides that where agencies have entered into agreements with hirers before 18 February 2026 (and these agreements have not been modified since), agencies will be able to recoup the costs of short notice payments from the hirer to the extent the hirer is responsible for the short notice.
What Does This Mean?
If an agency enters into an arrangement with a hirer before 18 February 2026, and this arrangement is not modified after, the agency will be entitled to recover short notice payments from a hirer to the extent that the hirer is responsible for the short notice, regardless of what is agreed in the agency’s arrangement with that hirer.
If an agency enters into an arrangement with a hirer or modifies this on or after 18 February 2026, the agency would need to seek to include its own contractual provisions for recouping short notice payments, if it wished. Of course agencies may wish to seek their own legal advice on this matter.
This Bill will be fast-tracked through all its Commons stages in a single sitting today. The Bill would introduce a system of prioritisation for the allocation of medical training places, with priority given to graduates of UK and Irish medical schools.
Other Announcements and Publications
Economic Growth
The left leaning Resolution Foundation published it's report on growth It concludes that UK GDP per person has barely grown since the pandemic and is behind international peers. It concludes that policy uncertainty has been higher in this Parliament than previously (save for the Truss budget) with £8 billion of U turns. It recommends deeper EU alignment; regulatory alignment in key sectors or extending Northern Ireland style customs arrangements. Plus, targeting planning reforms and also, skills, health and work to achieve an 80% employment rate.
Publication of plans for an AI Growth Lab | A cross-economy sandbox to help deploy AI enabled products and services that regulation currently hinders.
Professional and Business Services Extension to 2029of UK-Switzerland Services Mobility Agreement, enabling UK consultancy and legal professionals 90 day visa free work a year.
Capitalising on the value of UK data | Agreement with OpenAI to enable businesses to adopt AI
Increasing access to talent | High Potential Individual visa eligibility expanded to 100 top global universities, and made it easier for top talent to use Innovator Founder and Global Talent routes.
He recommends a data-first, digital-first approach to modernising public services, with an expansion of a No.10 Innovation Fellows programme to bring in specialist digital skills.
As we are seeing in our other APSCo jurisdictions there are opportunities for STEM recruiters across government.
The Government are engaging external expert advisors with the latest being City AI Champions.
HMRC and DBT have also set out the 2026 mandate for the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council.It states the forthcoming Jobs Plans set out tangible action to ensure businesses in the eight Industrial Strategy sectors have access to the talent and skills they need. The council must provide evidence-based advice by Summer 2026 on options to support increased employer investment in skills to drive growth. Defence and Clean Energy are highlighted, plus a focus on high potential city regions. The Government was keen to highlight efficiencies in the NHS with waiting lists cut three times faster in highest joblessness areas - GOV.UK.
![current_brand[0].name](https://uk.apsco.org/hs-fs/hubfs/APSCo%20United%20Kingdom%20Logo%202024_RGB-1.png?width=400&height=160&name=APSCo%20United%20Kingdom%20Logo%202024_RGB-1.png "current_brand[0].name")
