Paul Hadley, the head of Employment Agency Standards policy at the DTI responsible for drafting the Employment Agencies Act (EAA) Regulations, has left his job. His successor is Vic Patterson, previously unknown to the key negotiating players in the recruitment industry.

Hadley left the Employment Agency Standards office two weeks ago, to take up another post at the DTI in the European policy department. He had ‘spent several years in the employment relations field and wanted to broaden his experience’, according to a spokesperson for the DTI.

Representatives from the industry have been consulting with Paul Hadley for the last two years over the drafting of the EAA. Hadley leaves at a critical time in the history of the Regulations. Following the publication of the draft proposals on 1 February, representatives of the recruitment industry are still in discussion with the DTI about the final form of the Act. ‘It is an odd time for Hadley to leave this job,’ said Ann Swain, chief executive of the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo). ‘We would have expected that he would be there to see the Regulations through.

‘Paul Hadley has been very important in these negotiations,’ Swain continued. ‘He is very professional, and he has communicated openly and honestly his views on the industry. He had a difficult job - he can’t have enjoyed dealing with the recruitment industry.’

Marcia Roberts, external relations director at the REC, said: ‘Hadley has been party to some very complicated discussions between the government and the industry. We very much hope we don’t have to go through the same detail again with his successor.’

The change in personnel had ‘nothing to do with the policy on employment agencies’, according to the DTI spokesperson: ‘We had hoped that work on the Regulations would have been completed by now. That it is not reflects the complexity of the Regulations, the difficult discussions we have had with the industry, and our desire to take the time to get them right and, where possible, deal with the industry’s concerns.’

Hadley’s successor Patterson is new to the Employment Agency Standards team. He has ‘many years’ experience in the employment relations field, and was involved in implementing the national minimum wage’, according to the DTI.

The government has indicated to the industry that the earliest a new draft of the EAA will be available will be the end of April. But with a general election widely expected to take place on 7 June, it is unlikely that the legislation will be implemented until September.