The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003

Inspection and report

10.—(1) Every agency who at any time during an accounting period is required to keep accounts and records under paragraph 9 above shall, within ten months of the end of the accounting period, have them inspected and reported upon by an independent person who is a member of any of the bodies listed in section 249D(3) of the Companies Act 1985(1).

(2) The agency must ensure that the reporting accountant’s rights and duties are set out in a letter of engagement incorporating the following terms and must honour the undertakings given in paragraphs (v) and (vi) of the letter—

“(i) In accordance with paragraph 10 of Schedule 2 to the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (“the Conduct Regulations”), you are instructed to report to me/this firm/this company whether in your opinion the requirements of regulation 25 of and Schedule 2 to the Conduct Regulations have been complied with or have been substantially complied with during the accounting period to which the report relates.

(ii) You may report that those requirements have been substantially complied with if in your opinion they have been complied with except so far as concerns trivial breaches due to clerical errors or mistakes in book-keeping, all of which were rectified on discovery, and none of which in your opinion resulted in any loss to a person entitled to client’s money.

(iii) If you report that in your opinion those requirements have not been complied with or substantially complied with, you must annex to your report a statement of the matters in respect of which, in your opinion, the requirements have not been complied with or substantially complied with.

(iv) If you are unable to form an opinion as to whether or not the requirements have been complied with or substantially complied with, you must specify in your report the matters in respect of which you have been unable to satisfy yourself, and the reasons you have been unable to do so.

(v) For the purpose of making your report under paragraph (i) above, I/we/this firm/the company undertake to provide you with particulars of all accounts maintained or operated at any credit institution by me/this firm/the company, in the course of my/our/its business as an employment agency during the period to which the report relates.

(vi) Subject to paragraph (vii) below, you must examine my/this firm's/this company’s accounts and records in order to enable you to verify whether they comply with the requirements of paragraph 9 of Schedule 2 to the Conduct Regulations, for which purpose you may request such further information and explanations as you may consider necessary, and I/we/the company undertake(s) to provide you with such information as you may request.

(vii) nothing in paragraph (vi) above shall require you—

(a) to extend your enquiries beyond the information contained in the documents produced to you, supplemented by such information and explanations as you may obtain from me/us/the company;

(b) to consider whether the accounts and records have been properly kept in accordance with paragraph 9 of Schedule 2 to the Conduct Regulations at any time other than during the period to which your report relates.”.

(3) An agency required to maintain a client account in accordance with regulation 25 and this Schedule shall keep displayed at each of its premises used for or in connection with the carrying on of an employment agency in such a position that it can be readily seen by persons resorting to those premises a copy (certified as a true copy by the reporting accountant) of the reporting accountant’s most recent report, but not any statement annexed to it in accordance with paragraph (2)(iii) above.

(1)

1985 c. 6; section 249D was inserted by the Companies Act 1985 (Audit Exemption) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/1935), regulation 2 and amended by the Companies Act 1985 (Audit Exemption) (Amendment) Regulations 1995 (S.I. 1995/589), regulation 2, the Companies Act 1985 (Audit Exemption) (Amendment) Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/3080), regulation 2 and the Companies Act 1985 (Audit Exemption) (Amendment) Regulations 1997 (S.I. 1997/936), regulation 4.