§ Mr. Arnoldasked the Secretary of State for Employment why he has sought a 52 per cent. increase in respect of licence fees under the Employment Agencies Act 1973.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerThe costs of operating the Employment Agencies Act 1973 are required to be met from licence fees. Receipts from the present annual fee of £72, which was fixed two years ago before the Act came into force, have fallen well below meeting the full costs. On 10th January 1978 interested bodies were consulted on a proposal to increase the fee to £111 in order to meet the estimated costs of maintaining the existing arrangements from 1st April 1978.
After careful consideration of the representations arising from the consultations, my right hon. Friend has decided to introduce the increase in two stages so that licence fees and costs will be brought into balance at the next review.
§ Mr. Arnoldasked the Secretary of State for Employment what criteria he uses in calculating increases in the licence fees of employment agencies.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerThe policy in regard to Government fees and charges requires that these are regularly reviewed186W worked in manufacturing industry, the arithmetical equivalent of 399,500 jobs at 40 hours per week.
Regional figures are as follows:
with a view to their being set at a level which is designed to recover full costs and no more. The procedures followed, and the costs included, are described in "Government Accounting" (Section L2633), published by HMSO in 1974, and available from Government bookshops.
§ Mr. Arnoldasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his latest estimate of the number of employment agencies failing to comply with the provisions of the Employment Agencies Act 1973.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI assume that the hon. Member is referring to persons within scope of the Act who are operating without a licence. My Department looks into all cases where it has reason to believe there is illegal operation and, where there is sufficient evidence of this, takes firm action. Prosecutions have been instituted in two such cases and are being considered in several more. However, by the very nature of the problem it is not possible to estimate numbers of persons who are operating illegally.
§ Mr. Arnoldasked the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the percentage increase in the licence fee for employment agencies for each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerPrior to 1st July 1976 there was no uniform system of licensing. Almost half of the employment agencies were free of control. Licence fees in relation to the rest were a matter for those individual local 187W authorities who had taken licensing powers and were generally of the order of one to two guineas a year following a pattern set in 1921. The agencies became subject to licensing on a national basis when the Employment Agencies Act 1973 was brought into force on 1st July 1976. The annual licence fee then prescribed was £72. There was no increase in 1977.
§ Mr. Arnoldasked the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the direct annual cost of enforcing regulations made under the Employment Agencies Act in each year since 1973.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerThe Act came into force only on 1st July 1976 and it is not possible to separate out the costs of enforcing the regulations from the operational costs of the Act as a whole. These were £375,000 in the 1976–77 financial
Lowestoft* Halesworth† Total unemployed Aged under 20 included in total Total unemployed Aged under 20 included in total January 1969 … … … … 673 30 .. .. January 1970 … … … … 742 43 .. .. January 1971 … … … … 713 43 .. .. January 1972 … … … … 982 55 .. .. January 1973 … … … … 771 44 139 3 January 1974‡ … … … … 632 .. 145 .. January 1975‡ … … … … .. .. .. .. January 1976 … … … … 1,416 224 228 22 January 1977 … … … … 1,711 565 319 34 January 1978 … … … … 1,910 357 327 32
Beccles Bungay Total unemployed Aged under 20 included in total Total unemployed Aged under 20 included in total January 1969 … … … … 78 2 56 3 January 1970 … … … … 100 11 69 4 January 1971 … … … … 106 7 90 8 January 1972 … … … … 138 6 87 5 January 1973 … … … … 117 5 74 8 January 1974‡ … … … … 81 .. 42 .. January 1975‡ … … … … .. .. .. .. January 1976 … … … … 304 32 127 16 January 1977 … … … … 324 38 178 17 January 1978 … … … … 357 31 206 27 Note: The numbers under 20 years of age up to January 1973 may include some adult students who are excluded from the later figures. * Lowestoft careers office administer the careers service for all areas shown in the table. † Prior to June 1972 the figures for Halesworth were included with those for Southwold. ‡ The age analysis was not made in January 1974 because of an energy crisis. No unemployment figures are available for January 1975 because of industrial action by some staff in the Department of Employment Group.