Not too bad: 11 out of 12

A staggering 11 of the 12 recommendations regarding employment law put forward to the Government by the Better Regulation Task Force have been accepted.

As these mean a rethink of legislation to make it more helpful, accessible and useful to caterers, there is reason to celebrate.

In May the Better Regulation Task Force, of which I have had the pleasure to be a member, made its report (Employment Law - Striking a Balance) to the Government. This was put together after taking a considerable amount of evidence from a wide span of businesses, many of which operated in the catering and leisure markets.

The aim of the report was to "advise the Government on action which improves the effectiveness and credibility of government regulation by ensuring that it is necessary, fair, affordable and simple to understand - taking particular account of the needs of small business and ordinary people".

We took our brief very seriously and put a series of hard-hitting recommendations to the Government. It has spent the past three months considering our findings and has now published its response.

There are three recommendations the Government has accepted and committed to follow through that could well be useful, or indeed beneficial, to catering operations.

The first is the Government's pledge to pilot free or subsidised employment law advice visits to employers with fewer than 50 employees.

Employment law can be a real minefield. If the Government will assist businesses by providing experts willing to give bespoke advice, I believe this will be a positive benefit to caterers.

The second is running a number of pilot schemes giving a shared human resources function to small firms.

The details of this scheme will be hammered out once the pilots are under way, but it should leave entrepreneurs free to develop businesses and create jobs and economic growth for the country.

Third, the Government has accepted that it needs to consult with industry on how it sets about making sure everyone knows when new legislation comes into effect.

This means the Government will be working more in partnership with business. Instead of imposing new regulations, it will consult on how the introduction of legislation could best work.

I hope the acceptance of these recommendations makes a difference. My experience indicates that we will all have to monitor their progress.

Sarah Anderson is chief executive of the Mayday Group, a specialist catering recruitment agency