Agency workers

The government is to make it easier for employers to take on agency staff permanently and is currently consulting over proposals to end the right of agencies to charge a fee when an agency worker is taken on permanently. These fees currently run into thousands of pounds. The government also intends to outlaw the scams, operated by some model and entertainment agencies, of charging up-front fees for jobs which never materialise.

Announcing the plans, industry secretary Stephen Byers said the government had been given evidence of agencies demanding money "even when there is little or no prospect of work resulting".