Sterling Responds to Conservative General Election Win

In response to the Conservative general election win, Steve Smith, Managing Director of Sterling EMEA, has commented on the effect that it may have on hiring programmes and staff screening requirements.

“Although the general election result may have assuaged a small portion of the uncertainty that the country has been facing, with Brexit still yet to be decided on, there is a large amount of ambiguity facing hiring teams with regard to the compliance situation post-Brexit,” Steve states. “With the Conservatives likely to end freedom of movement, introduce ‘an Australian-style points-based system to control immigration,’ and implement student and NHS visa schemes for high-skilled migrants, this is likely to have a variety of compliance implications going forward.”

“With HR responsible for so many business-critical functions, it’s essential that hiring teams transition into a post-Brexit world as smoothly as possible. Therefore, it’s important that as much information is available to employers sooner rather than later, to give them ample time to adjust compliance processes. To this end, we‘ve been working with legal experts from Fragomen LLP to explain what Brexit and the new government means for firms and employees. We’ll be running a webinar on 21 January 2020, entitled ‘Background Screening, Brexit and Best Practice Considerations for Employers.’”

“The webinar, which will be hosted by Mark, Sward, Sterling’s VP of Global Privacy along with Naomi Goldschtein, Manager at Fragomen LLP, will cover a number of topics, such as the impact of Brexit on employees, managing obligations around data privacy, and an in-depth examination of Right to Work checks.”

Naomi Goldshtein, Senior Manager at Fragomen LLP, added, “With the Conservatives securing a majority, it is now widely expected that the Withdrawal Agreement will pass through Parliament. If this is achieved, the UK will leave the European Union on 31 January 2020. A transition period will be in place until 31 December 2020, during which time the benefits associated with freedom of movement would remain in place, including the right to move and work in the UK and all EU countries, and unrestricted business travel. For employers, it will be crucial to begin planning early on for any changes after this date that will impact hiring and screening, including Right to Work checks.”

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