Sex Industry (Advertisements) (Hansard, 23 July 1996)

§ Mr. Forth

Responsibility for the subject of the questions has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mike Fogden to Mr. David Hanson, dated 23 July 1996: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions asking if she will make it her policy to ban job advertisements associated with the sex industry appearing in Jobcentres and what steps she intends to take to remove sex industry advertisements from publications available in Jobcentres. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. The Employment Service (ES) has a responsibility under the Employment and Training Act 1973 to provide a public employment service to both employers and job seekers. We must therefore have strong reasons for refusing any employer access to our services. Jobcentres have written guidance which stipulates that they must not accept vacancies which: are illegal; would result in a breach of the law; might put job seekers at risk. It is not our intention to ban vacancies for an entire industry which would necessarily involve a very wide range of jobs. However, we acknowledge that there are certain types of vacancies that it would not be in the best interests of a public employment service to advertise, and our guidance explains this. The guidance also asks Jobcentres to take special care when handling certain types of vacancies, for example, those that offer employment in sauna baths or massage parlours. Any complaints Jobcentres receive from job applicants are followed up and where there is evidence that an employer is not genuine, or the vacancy falls into one of the categories described above, the service to that employer may be discontinued. The ES aims to provide job seekers with the widest possible access to job vacancies. Jobcentre managers can therefore decide to make available jobs newspapers for publications produced outside the Department, providing they are relevant to the employment, training or educational needs of job seekers. We have to consider the needs of the majority of our job seekers looking for work and not deny them access to vacancies because a publication contains an occasional vacancy which some people may dislike. It is not the role of the ES to censor private publications. There are governing bodies specifically for this. Advertisements appearing in newspapers and other publications must comply with the appropriate Codes of Practice, and any individuals having a complaint can ask the Advertising Standards Authority to investigate. I hope this is helpful.