I am submitting my application via the NCS on Thursday 11th Jan, and
am concerened that there may be a problem with my referees.

Both referees are
members of REC (The Recruitment & Employment Confederation -
www.rec.uk.com), and have known me on a personal basis for more than 3 years.
Are my referees likely to be sufficient to meet the requirements of the HO on
the basis of being "members of a professional body"? Any advice would
be appreciated as I do not have much time to arrange alternative referees. 

Regards

Angelis

I think we have discussed this in detail and if you only go through the post that mention referee in the subject you would have found your answer.  I will paste the answer from Paul that will answer your question and satisfy your referee condition.  BTW they can be in the same organisation ( I am assuming they are not related to each other) as they both satisfy the condition of being professional and IND requires only one.

Page 24 of the new Guide AN(TD) now says:
"Each
referee must have known you personally for at least three years. One
referee should be a person of professional standing, such as a doctor,
a minister of religion, civil servant or a member of a professional
body eg accountant or solicitor (but not representing you with this
application). The other should be the holder of a current British
citizen passport. Each should be:

• aged 25 years or over
• not related to you
• not related to the other referee
• not your solicitor or agent representing you with this application
• not employed by the Home Office"
  

What IND haven't
done is to issue any detailed guidance to the public on the new
requirements, and neither has their internal staff guidance been
updated.

Don't take this as a definitive statement - it is
only my suggestion - but until there is proper IND guidance available,
I think it might be an idea to look at the guidance on
coutersignatories (which is very comprehensive) on the Passport Office
website - here - www.passport.gov.uk/passport_countersign.asp.
If you know someone who fits into that lengthy list of acceptable
passport countersignatories, then phone up the Nationality Enquiry
Bureau and ask them if they will accept them as a nationality referee.
I'd be surprised if they say no...