HC Deb 19 May 1960 vol 623 cc1472-3
29 and 30. Dr. A. Thompson

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what reply he made to the representations made to him by the deputation which he recently received from British Actors' Equity Association on the regulation of backstage accommodation and conditions;

(2) what reply he made to the representations made to him by the deputation which he recently received from British Actors' Equity Association on the regulation of fee-charging employment agencies for actors.

Mr. Vosper

When I received the deputation on my right hon. Friend's behalf, I promised to consider carefully what the deputation had said and to convey its views to my right hon. Friend.

Dr. Thompson

Arising from Question No. 29, will the right hon. Gentleman bear in mind that although it is eleven years since the Gower Committee on Health, Welfare and Safety in Non-Industrial Employment reported on the deplorable conditions in which the entertainment industry works, if anything conditions have got worse since then, particularly, according to Equity, in commercial television and B.B.C. rehearsal rooms, where sanitary conditions are deplorable, both sexes change in the same dressing room and toilet accommodation is non-existent? In connection with Question No. 30, is the Joint Undersecretary aware that the main reason for these representations is that managers who employ actors frequently have a financial interest in the agency which acts as the intermediary and that when an actor pays 10 per cent. to the agency he is paying it back to the employer for the privilege of working for him?

Mr. Vosper

I told the deputation, which I saw partly at the invitation of the hon. Member, that the Government would consider the subject of the hon. Member's first Question in the light of any consequential legislation following upon the passage through the House of the Offices Bill introduced by the hon. Member for Greenwich (Mr. Marsh). The subject of the hon. Member's second Question is a technical matter of some complexity on which there are different opinions, but I promise to consider it further.