Employers recruiting migrant workers from outside the European Economic Area must be able to show that the job could not have been filled from the existing "resident labour market" under a tough new immigration points system, details of which were published by the Home Office yesterday.Liam Byrne, immigration minister, said the new system would mean "British jobseekers get the first crack of the whip and only the skilled migrants we actually need will be able to come".

BAE Systems, Britain's largest defence contractor, has admitted that it previously failed to pay "sufficient attention to ethical standards and avoid activities" which could have damaged its reputation.The comments, included in a detailed report by Lord Woolf on BAE's business ethics published yesterday, mark the first time that the company has publicly acknowledged its conduct in the past may have been found wanting.

Lord Woolf’s report on ethical standards at BAE Systems highlights the intense pressure for reform of Britain’s archaic anti-corruption laws, amid growing embarrassment at the lack of successful prosecutions. The Law Commission has proposed a long-awaited overhaul of the rules, but critics accuse the government of hypocrisy for lecturing other countries on the evils of bribery while failing to pursue the very British companies that are suspected of paying the money.

Consumers mis-sold loan protection insurance will be asked to join a class action case which could force compensation payouts worth more than £300m and a rash of other claims against high street banks.

ePolitix.com speaks to Stephen Howard, chief executive at Business in the Community about the way businesses are responding to a changing social and economic environment.

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