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Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2007

rose to move, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 28 November be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, these amendment regulations make some modest amendments to the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. The regulations govern the conduct of the private recruitment industry in Britain. This industry has grown in recent years and agency work plays a key role in our flexible labour market. The great majority of employment agencies are reputable businesses that comply with the regulations and treat their workers fairly. While the conduct regulations provide a satisfactory basic framework that balances the interests of agency workers, agencies and hiring businesses, we need to take account of those agency workers who may be more at risk of being denied their rights and less able to protect themselves. The Government’s labour market strategy paper, Success at Work, published in March last year, identified a number of areas of abuse affecting vulnerable agency workers that we wanted to tackle. We have now consulted on these proposals and taken account of the many helpful responses to that consultation. The amendment regulations set out a series of practical measures to address abuses affecting vulnerable agency workers without adding to the burdens of legitimate agencies that would never mistreat their workers in this way. In fact, the amendment regulations also include a deregulatory measure that reduces the burdens on agencies that supply workers on very short-term assignments. In addition, by taking action to outlaw some bad practices carried out by disreputable agencies, we will benefit the law-abiding agencies which suffer from unfair competition from those who cut corners at the expense of vulnerable workers. I should emphasise at this point that it would be quite wrong to suggest that all agency workers are vulnerable. Most agency workers are neither vulnerable nor exploited. Similarly, some employees on permanent contracts are undoubtedly vulnerable and subject to treatment that all in this House would condemn. The amendment regulations are therefore practical measures to address some key abuses affecting vulnerable workers. We are proposing three main changes to the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. The first of these will give agency workers a clear right to withdraw from accommodation, transport or other services provided by their agency without suffering any detriment. It is important that if an agency worker is using such services, they can choose to do so on the basis of their own free will. While a lot of the services that agencies provide are of benefit to their workers, I am aware of others that are not. These include instances of accommodation that consists of a space in a shared room in an overcrowded house at an exorbitant rent or transport that costs far more than could be obtained in the open market. These abuses tend to affect migrant workers, but can also apply to indigenous agency workers. While it is already an offence to make an offer of work conditional on an agency worker paying for other services such as transport or accommodation, we are now proposing to strengthen this provision by giving agency workers a right of withdrawal subject to a period of notice without suffering any detriment. In that way, agency workers will not be tied to services that do not represent value for money. These extra rights will be backed by additional resources for enforcement. It has been suggested to the Government that not enough inspectors are working for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and that their numbers should be increased, and the Government have responded to these representations. In September, the Secretary of State announced plans to double the number of inspectors. In addition, the inspectorate will be given stronger investigative powers through the forthcoming Employment Bill to enable it to identify the scale of any non-compliance, and the potential penalty for breaking the law with regard to agency workers will be raised to an unlimited fine. The second major change will affect the taking of fees from would-be entertainers and models for including their details in publications such as casting websites and model books. Such publications are used by entertainers and models to help them obtain work. There are too many instances of unscrupulous individuals advertising for would-be actors or models to attend casting sessions and then engaging in hard-sell tactics to persuade them to pay high fees for the provision of services and the promise of work. Those wishing to enter the worlds of modelling and entertainment are often young and often inexperienced. They are vulnerable to being exploited by unscrupulous people who persuade them that they have a great future if they sign up. They are assured there will be plenty of opportunities for them to get paid work in the industry, sometimes on the basis of exaggerated claims such as the agency’s connections with popular TV shows. On the strength of these claims, unsuspecting individuals are induced to pay relatively high fees, often more than £150, to include their details in the agency’s publication or website. This practice takes advantage of people vulnerable by virtue of their inexperience. In practice, of course, the modelling and entertainment industries are very difficult fields to get into, where even talented professionals can find it hard to get work. The amendment regulations therefore increase protection for workers by introducing a seven-day cooling-off period for contracts for placing a worker’s details in a publication or a website. To make this protection effective, any agency which takes a fee during the cooling-off period will be committing a criminal offence. The cooling-off period will apply to all contracts for placing an individual’s detail into a publication or website, whether the individual was responding to an advertisement for a casting session or approached the agency direct. The Government’s intention is to make the practice of enticing people to these kinds of casting sessions a lot less attractive. Reputable agencies do not need to use such underhand tactics and therefore will not be affected by this change. They should benefit from measures to stop such bad practices. We are aware, of course, that there have been calls for all such fees to be banned. We have looked carefully at the responses to the consultation on these proposals and have concluded that a complete ban would have adverse impacts on reputable publications which actors and models use to find work. Such publications are valued by those in the profession and we do not want to risk such publications becoming uneconomic. The last significant change in these amendment regulations will benefit agencies by reducing administrative burdens. Where agencies supply workers for short-term assignments of five working days or less, they will no longer have to provide written information provided that they have obtained all the required information from the worker and provided that the worker has already received information about the hirer and that information has not changed. This change should save agencies an estimated £6 million per year. It will particularly benefit agencies in the catering and hospitality sector or agencies which supply interpreters and supply teachers, where assignments are typically very short. This deregulatory change will not reduce the level of protection to workers as the reduced, lighter information requirements for these short-term assignments will only be available where the agency has already provided the essential information in their terms and conditions. The measures we are introducing in these amendment regulations are practical measures to address key abuses affecting vulnerable agency workers while also reducing the burdens on the great majority of legitimate agencies. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft regulations laid before the House on 28 November be approved. 3rd Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Bach.)