Recruitment agencies look simple on the outside — fees come in, margins are high, overheads are low. But the value often sits in relationships that don't appear on any balance sheet. Before you buy, understand exactly who owns those relationships, and whether they'll still be there after completion.
Quick Answer
To buy a recruitment agency in the UK, first establish the business model — permanent recruitment, temporary staffing, contract recruitment, executive search or a mixed model. Each has different income quality, risk profile and cash flow characteristics.
Then check net fee income and its reliability, client concentration, placement fees and rebate exposure, temp margin and payroll obligations, candidate database quality and lawfulness, client terms and signed agreements, consultant performance and retention risk, CRM quality, compliance with employment agency regulations and data protection, and — critically — whether income is owned by the business or by the individuals who will leave at completion.
Contents
What makes buying a recruitment agency different?
Most businesses hold their value in assets, contracts or systems. A recruitment agency holds much of its value in people — specifically, the relationships between consultants and their clients and candidates. Those relationships exist in people's heads, in their phones and in their LinkedIn connections. They do not automatically transfer with a business sale.
This is the central challenge of buying a recruitment agency: the financial accounts may show attractive fees and strong margins, but if the consultants who generated those fees leave after completion, and if they take the client relationships with them, the business you paid for may be materially less valuable than the business you acquired.
This risk is not a reason to avoid buying recruitment businesses — it is a reason to carry out thorough due diligence on relationships, contracts, restrictive covenants and retention before committing to a price.
Beyond the people question, recruitment agencies are data-heavy businesses. The candidate database is often presented as a key asset. But a large stale database may have little practical value — and may represent a significant data protection liability if candidate consents are out of date, data retention periods have not been respected or marketing communications have been sent without a proper lawful basis.
A buyer may be acquiring:
Client relationships and signed client terms of business
Candidate database and CRM records
Job pipeline (active vacancies and live briefings)
Perm placement history and repeat client relationships
Temp or contract book (workers on active assignments)
Consultant team and their sector expertise
Brand, website and online presence
Terms of business templates
Marketing lists and candidate communications
LinkedIn company page and recruiter licences
Compliance processes and employment agency records
Payroll and invoice finance arrangements (for temp businesses)
Sector niche and market position
Before making an offer, a buyer must understand how much of this is genuinely transferable — and how much is at risk of walking out of the door at completion.
What type of recruitment agency are you buying?
Understanding the business model is the first step in any recruitment agency acquisition. Different models have fundamentally different income profiles, risks and due diligence requirements.
Permanent recruitment
Permanent recruitment agencies earn a placement fee — typically 10–20% of the candidate's first-year salary — when a candidate is placed in a permanent role and the employer pays the invoice.
Income is transactional and lumpy. There is no recurring income — each fee depends on a new vacancy, a suitable candidate, a successful placement and a paid invoice. The quality of the pipeline matters as much as historical fee income.
Key checks for permanent recruitment:
Placement fees and revenue concentration.What are average fees? Are fees concentrated among a small number of clients? If one or two clients generate 40–50% of fees, loss of those clients would be catastrophic.
Rebate exposure.Most perm placement agreements include a rebate or replacement guarantee — if the placed candidate leaves within a set period (typically three to six months), the fee is partially or fully refunded, or a free replacement is provided. Check rebate history and any live rebate exposure.
Repeat client rate.Are clients using the agency once or repeatedly? A high repeat client rate indicates embedded relationships. A low rate — or a client list dominated by one-off instructions — suggests fee income is more fragile.
Signed terms of business.Are there signed client terms for every client? Oral arrangements or outdated terms are a risk.
Consultant performance by desk.Who generates the fees? Are fees spread across the team or concentrated on the owner and one or two senior consultants?
Temporary staffing
Temporary staffing agencies supply workers to clients on a temporary basis. The agency pays the workers and invoices the client at a higher charge rate, earning the margin between the two.
Income is more recurring than perm — active temp assignments generate weekly margin — but the model requires careful management of payroll obligations, working capital and compliance.
Key checks for temp staffing:
Active temp book.How many workers are currently on active assignments? What is the weekly gross margin? What is the trend — growing, stable, declining?
Client relationships.Which clients are using temporary workers? How long have they been clients? Are there signed client terms covering charge rates, payment terms and liability?
Worker contracts.Are temporary workers engaged under contracts of employment or on worker status? Are the contracts current and correctly drafted?
Holiday pay.Are holiday pay obligations being correctly calculated and accrued? This is a frequent area of error, and HMRC can investigate back several years.
Agency worker regulations.Workers who have been on assignment with the same hirer for twelve continuous calendar weeks acquire entitlement to the same basic working conditions as the hirer's comparable employees. Is the agency tracking this correctly?
Payroll funding.Temp businesses must pay workers before clients pay invoices. This creates a working capital requirement that can be significant for businesses with a large temp book. Check whether the business uses invoice finance or factoring, and understand the terms.
Debtor days.How quickly do clients pay? Long debtor days in a temp business create cash flow pressure.
Contract recruitment
Contract recruitment typically involves placing self-employed contractors or limited company contractors with clients, or managing professional contractors through umbrella companies. Margins can be lower than temp staffing, but the admin burden can also be lower.
Key checks for contract recruitment:
Contractor book.How many contractors are on active assignments? What is the daily or weekly margin?
IR35 position.Where contractors are engaged through personal service companies, IR35 rules may apply — particularly after the off-payroll working rules introduced in 2021 for medium and large clients. Understand the IR35 position for each client and each contractor.
Umbrella company arrangements.If workers are paid through umbrella companies, check the arrangements are compliant and that there are no mini-umbrella scheme issues.
Contractor retention.Contractors on long-running assignments can be vulnerable to being hired directly by the client, or to being approached by competitors. Check client transfer fee clauses and contractor notice periods.
Executive search
Executive search firms are typically retained by clients to identify and approach senior candidates for specific leadership roles. Retainer income provides upfront cash flow, with milestone payments at shortlist and completion.
Key checks for executive search:
Retainer income.How many active retainers are in progress? At what stage are milestone billings? Are retainers with repeat clients or one-off instructions?
Research capability.Executive search depends heavily on proprietary research — candidate mapping, market intelligence, relationship development. This is often held in the heads of the founding partners and senior researchers. Succession risk is high.
Client concentration.Executive search businesses often have close relationships with a small number of senior client contacts. If those contacts change — promotion, departure, reorganisation — the relationship may not survive.
Founder dependency.Many executive search businesses are deeply personal to their founders. A buyer must assess honestly whether clients are buying the firm's capabilities or the founder's personal network.
What financial information should you check?
Financial due diligence in a recruitment agency must go deeper than the headline accounts. Fee income can be volatile, concentrated and contingent on relationships that may not transfer. Buyers should build a forensic picture of income quality before committing to a valuation.
Accounts.Three years of filed accounts showing revenue, gross profit, overheads and net profit. Check that accounts have been prepared on a consistent basis and that revenue recognition is appropriate.
Management accounts.Year-to-date management accounts for the current financial year, with comparative figures for the equivalent period in the prior year.
Revenue by service.A breakdown of income between permanent placement fees, temp margin, contract margin, executive search retainers and any other income. Understanding the mix is essential for assessing income quality and risk.
Revenue by client.A client-by-client breakdown of fees over the past three years. This reveals concentration risk — the proportion of income generated by the top three, five and ten clients. If the top client accounts for 30% of fees, loss of that client would be material.
Revenue by consultant.A consultant-by-consultant breakdown of billings. This reveals key-person risk — the proportion of income generated by the owner, senior consultants and individuals who may leave after completion.
Perm placement reports.Placement history by client, candidate, consultant and fee. This enables assessment of repeat business, average fee levels, rebate rates and sector concentration.
Temp margin reports.Weekly or monthly temp margin by client, department and worker type. This enables assessment of margin trends, client mix and working capital requirements.
Rebate and refund history.A schedule of rebates paid or replacement placements made in the past three years. A high rebate rate may indicate quality issues with candidate selection or client relationship management.
Debtor report.Aged debtor analysis showing outstanding invoices by age and client. Long-debtor days, disputed invoices or bad debts are warning signs.
Bad debt history.Any debts written off in the past three years, with explanations.
Payroll funding arrangements.For temp businesses — details of any invoice finance, factoring or overdraft facility used to fund payroll. Understand the facility limit, availability and whether the facility is transferable.
VAT returns.To cross-check against declared revenue.
Staff commission plans.Consultant commission structures, thresholds and historical payments. Commission plans that are not properly documented create risk of disputes.
Add-back schedule.A clear schedule of legitimate add-backs, including any owner salary above market rate, personal benefits or one-off costs that will not continue under new ownership.
What client and candidate checks matter?
Clients
Client relationships are one of the most important assets in a recruitment business — and one of the most difficult to verify.
Review:
Client list.Full list of clients who have paid fees in the past three years, with contact names, fee history and current status.
Signed terms of business.Are signed terms in place with every client? Terms should cover fee rates (or margin for temp), payment terms, rebate provisions, exclusivity and any liability caps.
Fee percentages and rates.What fee rates or temp charge rates are agreed with each client? Are rates competitive or under pressure?
Rebate clauses.What are the rebate provisions in each client's terms? Are they standard or have any clients negotiated unusually generous rebate periods?
Payment terms.What credit terms do clients have? Are they paying within terms?
Active vacancies.How many live vacancies is the agency currently working? Are these exclusive assignments or multi-agency PSL positions?
Repeat client rate.What proportion of fee income comes from clients who have used the agency more than once? A high repeat rate indicates embedded relationships; a low rate suggests fee income is fragile.
Client concentration.Revenue concentrated in one or two clients represents significant risk. Buyers should assess what would happen to the business if the top client ceased using the agency.
Disputes.Are there any ongoing disputes, complaints or legal proceedings with clients?
Non-solicitation terms.Do client terms include restrictions on the client poaching consultants or candidates? Do consultant employment contracts include restrictions on approaching clients after leaving?
A buyer should speak directly to the seller's key clients — with the seller's consent, at an appropriate stage of due diligence — to assess the strength of client relationships and their intentions after the ownership change.
Candidates
The candidate database is frequently cited as a key asset in a recruitment business sale. In practice, its value depends on how current, lawful and engaged the data is.
Review:
Database size.How many candidate records are held? This figure alone is meaningless without understanding the quality of the data.
Active candidates.Of the total database, how many candidates have been actively engaged — applied for a role, responded to a message, updated their profile — in the past twelve months?
Lawful basis for data.Under UK GDPR, personal data must be processed on a lawful basis. For a candidate database, this typically means consent (for marketing communications), legitimate interests (for direct relationship building) or the performance of a contract (for candidates who have been placed). Sellers should be able to demonstrate the lawful basis for holding each category of candidate data.
Consent and marketing permissions.If the agency sends candidate newsletters, job alerts or marketing communications, are marketing consents in place? Can they be demonstrated?
Data age.Old candidate records — particularly records more than two to four years old with no recent contact — may have little value and high compliance risk. The ICO's guidance on data retention requires organisations to delete personal data that is no longer needed. Stale databases may require significant cleansing before they can be lawfully used by a buyer.
Sensitive data.Candidate records may include sensitive personal data — health information, criminal record information (for enhanced DBS checks), salary data. This is special category data under UK GDPR and requires additional safeguards.
Right-to-work records.Are right-to-work checks documented for all workers who have been placed?
Data subject requests.Have candidates requested deletion or access to their data? How were these handled?
Do not accept "we have 80,000 candidates" as evidence of value. A large stale database may be worth very little — and may represent a material data protection liability. Request a breakdown of active, recent and legacy records and assess the quality of the data carefully.
What employment agency rules and compliance checks matter?
Recruitment agencies in the UK operate under a specific regulatory framework. GOV.UK sets out guidance on the rules for employment agencies and employment businesses, and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 establishes statutory obligations that apply to most recruitment businesses.
Key compliance areas to check:
Terms with hirers.Employment businesses (those who supply temporary workers) must provide written terms of business to hirers before commencing the supply of workers. These terms must include specific statutory information. Check that signed terms are in place with all active temp clients.
Terms with work-seekers.Employment businesses must provide written terms to work-seekers (temporary workers) before placing them. These terms must include information about the nature of the engagement, pay and any restrictions.
Fee restrictions.Employment agencies and employment businesses are prohibited from charging work-seekers (candidates or workers) fees for finding or trying to find them work. Limited exceptions apply — for example, in the modelling and entertainment sectors, or for certain specific services. Buyers should check whether any worker fees or deductions look questionable.
Record keeping.Employment agencies must maintain records of clients, candidates, vacancies, placements and terms of business. These records should be available for inspection by the Employment Agency Standards (EAS) Inspectorate.
EAS correspondence.Check whether the business has received any correspondence from the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate — the body that enforces the Conduct Regulations. Any enforcement action, prohibition order or compliance notice is a serious red flag.
Sector-specific licences.Some sectors require additional licensing. For example, agencies supplying workers in the gangmasters sector (agriculture, food processing, shellfish gathering) must hold a Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) licence. Agencies placing workers in regulated activities with vulnerable adults or children must comply with DBS checking requirements.
Vulnerable worker safeguards.Agencies placing workers in care, healthcare, education or other regulated settings should have robust DBS checking processes, reference checks and right-to-work verification.
Take specialist recruitment legal advice if the agency handles temporary workers, workers in regulated sectors, overseas recruitment or any supply chain arrangements that could engage the Modern Slavery Act.
What temp staffing and payroll checks matter?
Temporary staffing creates cash flow and compliance obligations that are materially different from perm recruitment. A buyer acquiring a temp business must understand these obligations before completion.
Worker contracts.Are temporary workers engaged under properly drafted contracts? Are workers classified as employees, workers or self-employed correctly? Misclassification of employment status can create HMRC liability and employment tribunal risk.
Payroll records.Are PAYE records complete and current? Are National Insurance contributions correctly calculated and paid? Are workers paid at or above the National Living Wage?
Holiday pay.Holiday pay for irregular-hours and zero-hours workers is calculated using the average pay over the previous fifty-two weeks. This has been a frequent area of error in the temp staffing sector, and claims for underpaid holiday pay can go back several years.
Pension auto-enrolment.Are temporary workers who meet the eligibility criteria enrolled in a workplace pension scheme? Are employer pension contributions being paid?
Agency worker regulations.Workers who have completed twelve weeks of qualifying work with the same hirer are entitled to the same basic pay and working conditions as comparable permanent employees. Is the agency tracking qualifying periods and applying the equal treatment rules correctly?
Umbrella company arrangements.If workers are paid through umbrella companies, check the umbrella is compliant and that workers are receiving correct pay, pension contributions and holiday pay. HMRC has been active in investigating non-compliant umbrella arrangements.
Charge rates and margins.What are the agreed charge rates for each temp client? What are the corresponding pay rates? What margin is being achieved? Are margins under pressure?
Client payment terms.What credit terms have been agreed with temp clients? Clients paying on sixty or ninety day terms create significant working capital pressure in a business that pays workers weekly.
Invoice finance or factoring.Does the business use invoice finance to fund payroll? If so, what are the facility terms, costs and availability? Is the facility transferable to a buyer? If not, what alternative working capital arrangement will be needed?
Bad debt.Have any temp invoices been written off? Are there any disputed invoices or outstanding bad debt?
Insurance.Does the agency hold employers' liability insurance, public liability insurance and professional indemnity insurance? Are policies current and transferable?
Accident and incident records.Are there any recorded workplace accidents, incidents or near-misses involving temporary workers? Any outstanding claims?
Buyers of temp businesses should model the working capital requirement carefully — the gap between paying workers each week and receiving payment from clients can be substantial, particularly for agencies with large weekly payrolls and slow-paying clients.
What staff, consultants and CRM issues matter?
Consultants
Consultants are often the most valuable — and most volatile — asset in a recruitment business.
Review:
Consultant list.Who are the fee earners? What sectors do they cover?
Billings by consultant.What fees or margin has each consultant generated over the past three years? Is the billing profile evenly spread or heavily concentrated?
Commission structures.What are the commission thresholds, rates and payment terms? Are commission plans documented and signed?
Employment contracts.Do all consultants have current, signed employment contracts? Do contracts include appropriate restrictive covenants — non-solicitation of clients, non-solicitation of candidates, non-competition for a reasonable period and geography?
Restrictive covenants.Even well-drafted restrictive covenants can be difficult to enforce. A buyer should assess the practical risk of consultant departures, not rely entirely on contractual protection.
Notice periods.What notice must consultants give? Are notice periods long enough to allow the business to manage a transition?
Staff turnover.What has consultant turnover been over the past three years? High turnover in a recruitment business — an irony not lost on the sector — is a warning sign of management, culture or commission structure problems.
Key-person risk.Is fee generation concentrated on the owner and one or two senior consultants? If so, what is the retention plan for those individuals?
TUPE.TUPE will normally apply to employees in a recruitment business sale. Employees transfer on their existing terms and conditions. Take specialist employment legal advice.
Buyers should consider making key consultant retention a condition of the deal — for example, requiring that named consultants remain in employment for a defined period after completion, with appropriate protections in the sale and purchase agreement.
CRM
The CRM system is the operational backbone of a recruitment business. It holds client records, candidate records, job history, placement data, activity logs and, often, consultant performance data.
Review:
CRM provider.Which system is used? Is it a mainstream recruitment CRM (Bullhorn, Vincere, Recruitly, Mercury, etc.) or a bespoke or generic system?
Data quality.Are records current, complete and accurate? A CRM with patchy data entry discipline is less valuable than the database size suggests.
Candidate records.Are candidate records up to date? Are consent and lawful basis fields populated?
Client records.Are client records complete — contacts, signed terms, fee history, activity notes?
Activity history.Is consultant activity logged in the CRM? Activity logs are important evidence of client relationship ownership.
GDPR and retention settings.Are data retention periods configured? Are deletion workflows in place for candidates who have not been engaged in a defined period?
Exportability.Can data be exported from the CRM in a usable format? This matters for continuity if the buyer uses a different system.
Data ownership.Who owns the CRM subscription — the business or the owner personally? Is the subscription transferable?
LinkedIn recruiter licences.Does the business hold LinkedIn Recruiter licences? These are typically personal to the user and may not be transferable to a new owner or new users without LinkedIn's involvement.
Job board integrations.Are job boards integrated with the CRM? Are these accounts in the business's name and transferable?
Website and domain.Who owns the website and domain? Are they included in the sale? Is the website a meaningful source of candidate enquiries or client leads?
The CRM is either a major asset or a messy liability. Buyers should assess it honestly before pricing it into the deal.
What red flags should buyers watch for?
Certain findings in due diligence should prompt a buyer to pause, seek additional evidence or reconsider the deal terms:
Revenue dominated by one client.If 30% or more of fees come from a single client, loss of that client is a material risk that must be reflected in the price.
Owner owns all key relationships.Where the owner is the primary relationship holder for top clients, the business is likely to lose those clients after the owner departs. Buyers should ask sellers to evidence that client relationships exist at multiple levels.
Consultants are likely to leave.If key fee earners are not tied in by long notice periods, strong commission plans or other retention mechanisms, the buyer may be acquiring a business that hollows out at completion.
Candidate database is stale.A large database with minimal recent activity is not a valuable asset — it is a compliance liability.
Signed terms are missing.Operating without signed client terms creates fee enforcement risk and rebate uncertainty.
Rebate exposure is high.A business with a high historical rebate rate may have candidate quality issues, client relationship problems or terms that are structurally unfavourable.
Debtor days are long.Long debtor days in a perm business reduce cash quality. In a temp business, long debtor days create payroll funding pressure.
Temp payroll funding is tight.A temp business that is stretched on invoice finance availability or working capital may not be able to sustain its current temp book without additional funding.
Compliance records are weak.Missing signed terms, absent right-to-work records, incomplete DBS files or no evidence of EAS compliance are warning signs.
Data protection process is poor.A candidate database with no documented lawful basis, no consent records and no deletion process is a regulatory liability.
CRM data is unreliable.Inconsistent data entry, blank fields and poor record quality reduce the value of the candidate and client database.
Pipeline is overstated.A buyer should be sceptical of a large live vacancy pipeline that has not converted to placements — vacancies that have been open for many months may be low-priority, stalled or already filled by a competitor.
Seller discourages consultant retention discussions.A seller who is reluctant to allow a buyer to meet key consultants before completion should prompt concern.
Recruitment agency buyer checklist
Business model identified — perm, temp, contract, exec search or mixed
Three years of filed accounts reviewed
Net fee income or gross profit confirmed and validated
Revenue by client reviewed — concentration risk identified
Revenue by consultant reviewed — key-person risk assessed
Client terms of business reviewed — signed versions confirmed
Rebate and refund history checked — live exposure quantified
Candidate database assessed — size, age, quality and lawful basis reviewed
Data protection reviewed — UK GDPR compliance, consent records, retention policies
Conduct Regulations 2003 compliance reviewed — terms with hirers and work-seekers, fee restriction compliance, EAS correspondence checked
Temp payroll records reviewed, if applicable — worker classification, holiday pay, auto-enrolment
Agency worker regulations compliance checked, if applicable
Working capital requirement modelled — payroll funding, debtor days, invoice finance arrangements
Debtors reviewed — aged debtor report, bad debt history
Consultant employment contracts reviewed — commission plans, notice periods, restrictive covenants
Consultant retention risk assessed — key-person risk plan agreed
CRM reviewed — data quality, transferability, ownership
Digital assets confirmed — website, domain, LinkedIn, job board accounts
Owner dependency assessed — transition plan agreed
TUPE analysis completed
Offer made conditional on satisfactory due diligence
FAQs
How is a recruitment agency valued?
Recruitment agencies are typically valued on a multiple of maintainable net fee income (gross profit) or adjusted EBITDA. The multiple reflects income quality, client concentration, consultant retention risk, candidate database quality, temp book stability, owner dependency and buyer demand. Perm businesses are often valued at a lower multiple than temp businesses because perm income is more volatile. Specialist niche agencies with embedded client relationships may command higher multiples.
Is a candidate database a valuable asset?
Only if it is current, lawful, actively engaged and practically useful. A database of 80,000 candidates that has not been contacted in three years, where consent records are absent and where data ages have not been managed, is not a material asset — it may be a liability. Buyers should assess candidate database quality forensically, not by headline numbers.
What rules apply to recruitment agencies?
Employment agencies and employment businesses must comply with the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, which governs terms with hirers, terms with work-seekers, record keeping and restrictions on charging worker fees. Additional rules apply in regulated sectors. The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate enforces these rules and can issue prohibition orders against non-compliant agencies.
Is temp recruitment riskier than perm recruitment?
Temp businesses have more ongoing compliance obligations — payroll, holiday pay, pension auto-enrolment, agency worker regulations — and require more working capital because workers must be paid before clients pay invoices. However, temp income can be more recurring and predictable than perm income. Both models carry risk; buyers should understand the specific risk profile of the business they are acquiring.
Should I meet the consultants before completing the deal?
Yes — with the seller's consent and at an appropriate stage of due diligence. Understanding which consultants are staying, what their intentions are and whether they have agreed retention packages is essential for assessing the business you are buying. A seller who refuses to facilitate these conversations should raise concern.
Does TUPE apply to a recruitment agency acquisition?
TUPE will normally apply where a recruitment business is sold as a going concern and employees are assigned to that business. Employees transfer on their existing terms and conditions. Take specialist employment legal advice on TUPE obligations before completion.
What is a reasonable due diligence period?
Recruitment agency due diligence is typically completed within four to eight weeks from heads of terms, assuming the seller provides information promptly. Complex businesses — particularly those with significant temp books, multiple sector specialisms or data protection issues — may take longer.
Can the owner's non-compete prevent clients following them?
Post-completion non-compete and non-solicitation clauses can be included in a business sale agreement to restrict the outgoing owner from approaching clients, candidates or staff for a defined period after completion. These clauses must be reasonable in scope, geography and duration to be enforceable. Take specialist legal advice on drafting these provisions.
Key takeaways
Recruitment value sits primarily in relationships — between consultants, clients and candidates. Those relationships may not transfer automatically.
Understand the business model before assessing value — perm, temp, contract and executive search have materially different risk profiles.
Client concentration is the most common structural risk in recruitment businesses. A buyer should model what happens if the top one or two clients leave.
Consultant retention is often as important as the financial accounts. Make retention a condition of the deal where key consultants are critical to the business.
Candidate database quality matters more than size. Assess lawfulness, currency and engagement — not headline numbers.
Compliance with the Conduct Regulations 2003, data protection law and employment obligations must be verified, not assumed.
Temp businesses need working capital. Understand the funding model before making an offer.
CRM quality can be a significant differentiator in value — or a warning sign.
Make any offer conditional on satisfactory due diligence, including financial, legal, compliance and data protection checks.
Related resources
Important disclaimer
Buy a Business Ltd is a marketplace, not a broker. Information, guides, checklists and examples on this site are for general guidance only and do not constitute legal, tax, financial, investment, valuation, licensing, environmental, employment, property, recruitment, intellectual property, data protection, marketing, brokerage or regulated advice.
Buying or selling a business involves risk. You should seek independent professional advice before buying, selling, valuing, financing or completing a business purchase.
Sources and useful references
GOV.UK: Employment agencies and businesses — gov.uk/employment-agencies-and-businesses
GOV.UK: Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 guidance — gov.uk
Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate: Brief guide for agencies — gov.uk/government/publications/employment-agency-standards-eas-inspectorate
ICO: Due diligence when sharing data following mergers and acquisitions — ico.org.uk
ICO: Business-to-business marketing — ico.org.uk
GOV.UK: Business transfers, takeovers and TUPE — gov.uk/transfers-takeovers
HMRC: Agency workers and employment status — gov.uk