From this summer, the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) will be
able to access police files directly to check the criminal records of potential
staff. The CRB believes that lawyers, accountants and other firms providing
financial services will become heavy users of the service. Other professions
that will be able to check criminal records include social workers, teachers
and probation officers. The CRB is yet to announce its pricing structure.

www.disclosure.gov.uk

Women in building

A new advertising campaign has been launched to help recruit
young women into the construction industry, to increase workers for the
predicted housing boom. The report, Construction Employment and Training
Forecast 2001-2005, predicts that in London alone over 43,000 new recruits will
be needed in the next five years.

www.citb.co.uk

Met caught out

A 3 per cent offer for 30,000police support staff has been
referred to Acas for binding arbitration. Unison wanted a 6  per cent increase and the removal of the two
lowest salary points – currently £8,790 and £9,153. The pay talks broke down in
July as Unison pushed to bring pay in line with police officers.

www.unison.org.uk

Low pay settlements

Pay settlements in the engineering sector have remained at
historically low levels from October to December 2000, according to the latest
figures released by the Employers Engineering Federation (EEF). The average pay
settlement for the three months ending December was 2.8 per cent.

www.eef.org.uk

No school today

Qualified lecturers are not taking up jobs in further
education because they can earn more money working in industry or by teaching
in schools, according to a new survey by the Further Education National Training
Organisation (Fento). While 38 per cent of colleges indicated that they are
having problems recruiting lecturers, 60 per cent are having severe
difficulties.

www.fento.org

Share handcuffs

Companies are offering share packages to non-executive
directors in a bid to recruit and retain the right people, according to a
survey by 3i. Annual cash fees for directors in the UK, Germany and US range
from £25,000 to £40,000.