Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2010

Lord Young of Norwood Green Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd June 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord James of Blackheath]

My Lords, I spoke on this subject when it first came up a long time ago. I welcome the return of this instrument, but I have a few continuing concerns.

First, the Minister’s description of parties and gatherings was rather naïve. There is frequently a very real cost for those who attend these events. They frequently pay for photography or the costs of preparing themselves to attend these events. The most notorious of all these gatherings are audition parties where a producer may require 20 or more young women to participate in a group activity in a film. These are held out as great career opportunities where one can meet influential production executives. In some cases the entrance fee to those gatherings is unscrupulously sold by the staff of the agency in and around the local clubs. As a result, these girls buy these tickets at considerable cost in the belief that they will be able to earn enough money during the evening to recover the cost, make a profit and have fun at the same time. It sounds like a good deal, but it is not. These events are sometimes appalling with large quantities of white powder frequently floating round the room.

There ought to be much greater and more rigorous management of the proceedings. The agency should require an authoritative person to be present to stop this nonsense. There have been a number of well publicised examples of this recently such as the famous Manchester United Christmas party where the agency staff actually sold the tickets in clubs to women ambitious to become WAGs or whatever. It would not have been bad if it had ended there, but, of course, it did not. Therefore, the instrument goes nowhere near far enough in requiring supervision of the parties to which these young people go.

However, I am much more concerned about the block bookings of young people who are recruited to provide the catering staff at various sporting events around the country. I have a lot of experience of this, having been responsible for all the major race gatherings in Britain over a number of years until some three or four years ago. I know exactly what goes on at these affairs. It is not only the race meetings where these young people are in such demand—major golf tournaments also feature. Without doubt, the major golf tournaments present a much bigger risk than the race meetings as the young people work until much later in the evening, until the last of the light has gone and the corporate entertaining goes on much longer. Therefore, the young people are out much later and are exposed to increasingly inebriated gatherings of older men attending the corporate entertaining, so it is a very hazardous place for young people.

The agency recruitment generally takes place in and around well known catering training schools and colleges. The recruiting agencies put on a bus or two buses to take virtually all the students at the catering colleges in, for example, Newbury and Reading, and ship them up to wherever the meeting is to take place—St Andrews, or wherever. Herein lies the great risk, which I do not believe the instrument even begins to address. The students go up for, say, a five-night stay in a place far from home, with the cost of their transport paid for by the agency as the latter will have done a deal with the organisers of the tournament or the meeting. When the students get to the meeting, there is a very undefined line—the instrument does not deal with that—as to whether they are the responsibility of the agency which has recruited them or of the promoter of the event who has hired the agency to recruit them. There is a lack of definition of where that responsibility lies. With it, goes the responsibility for security. There is no clear definition of the rules that should govern the overnight accommodation for the people when they get to the event. There is no specific rule outlawing unisex dormitories or other provision in the temporary accommodation of these people. That is ridiculous; there should be. There is no requirement for permanent overnight supervision by a mature and responsible person in those situations or for security to keep away predatory corporate guests, male members of staff, players or whoever else has been engaged in the event. These places are lethal—nowhere near enough security is provided.

However, a greater hazard may arise. An innocent person may attend one of these events and find that on the first night they are subjected to undesirable treatment. They may decide the next day that this is too much for them and they want to leave. However, they cannot do so because the coach that was sent up is part of the cost structure for the whole deal and will not be made available for certain people to travel back on their own. The promoters will not give these people the rail fare to enable them to go back on their own. That would probably cost almost as much as sending them back in the coach, if they travelled from St Andrews to Reading, for example. These young people are then stuck. There is no obligation on the organisers or the agency to provide alternative accommodation away from the site for anybody who has had a bad experience on the first or second night. The pay the workers receive for their first day’s work will not be anywhere near enough to pay the rail or any other fare back down to civilisation whence they came.

Therefore, there are still some very serious holes in the instrument. I welcome it but it leaves more serious issues unaddressed than ever before. It is a good start but goes nowhere near far enough to address the appalling incidents that can happen at these events.

[Lord Young of Norwood Green]

My Lords, naturally I concur with the Minister’s splendid analysis. She talked about the importance of agency working and flexibility and we do not demur from that. However, in applying the European directive, we need to enhance the rights of agency workers and address past discrepancies. I was also pleased to note that her analysis of the regulatory burden concurred with ours. The previous Government sought not to add to the regulatory burden.

There is no such thing as a perfect piece of legislation. Nevertheless, I agree with the Minister’s analysis that the measure seeks to deal with an area where a large amount of exploitation arises. That is not to say that there are no reputable agencies; there are. Unfortunately, however, young people who wish to embark on a modelling career often pay ridiculous sums of money up front on the promise of employment that never arises.

I understand the concerns expressed by the noble Lord, Lord James, but one hopes that parental responsibility will be exercised where these vulnerable young people are concerned. That area may not be covered by the instrument. I do not know whether that was raised with us beforehand. We were addressing what was commonly observed to be an area of significant exploitation. The statutory instrument addresses that and we welcome the Government’s decision to introduce it.

[Lord Cotter]

I welcome these two statutory instruments, which were laid for good reason. I shall be interested to hear the response to the noble Lord, Lord James. I believe that I have heard him make these comments before. I welcome the fact that the second instrument seeks to protect the workers whom we are discussing and reduces bureaucracy.

I shall make a general comment. Over the lifetime of a Parliament—quite rightly so—Governments make regulations that are opposed and sometimes, as time goes on, they need to be looked at again. That is why from time to time people raise the issue of sunset clauses. In view of the present Government’s strong commitment to reducing bureaucracy, particularly for business, the processes in place—I do not know much about them, although I know about sunset clauses—such as statutory instruments, tend to be reactive, although I am open to be corrected by the Minister. People may have said, “There is a problem with the regulations, so can that be addressed?”. I do not have sufficient knowledge on this. Given that overregulation and defunct regulation are big issues for business and people generally, what proactive ways to address these sorts of problems are there that would greatly cut regulations that, over time, lose their need to be there? I am sorry to impose on the Minister. I wished to make a general point.