The Stage

Government admits it has never been successful in up-front fees prosecution

Published Thursday 23 June 2011 at 12:49 by Matthew Hemley

Whitehall officials admit no rogue agents have been successfully prosecuted for charging illegal up-front fees since agency licensing was abolished 15 years ago.

The admission comes as campaigners step up their bid for agency licensing to be reintroduced to the entertainment sector. It was ditched in 1995 when the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 came into force, but campaigners claim that without it some agencies will continue to target vulnerable performers.

Employment Agency Standards, which is the division of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills set up to investigate complaints against agencies, has the powers to prosecute organisations that repeatedly flout the law.

However, it admitted its lack of successful prosecutions when up-front fees campaigner Clive Hurst asked how many had been made from 1995 onwards.

A Department for Business spokesman confirmed to The Stage that no prosecutions had been taken out, but added: “EAS continues to inspect agencies and investigate complaints where this is the alleged case, and will prosecute if warnings on up-front fees are ignored.”

However, Hurst and fellow campaigners are now using the no-prosecution admission to back their calls for licensing in the industry.

Until now, campaigners have focused on urging the government to bring in specific agency licensing for the entertainment sector, with BECTU and Equity earlier this year joining together to launch a petition on the issue.

Ministers have repeatedly stated they have no plans to introduce licensing, so campaigners have changed tack, urging the government to instead consider extending to entertainment the powers of the Gangmaster Licensing Authority, which regulates the supply of workers to the agricultural, horticultural and shellfish industries.

They argue that if this was done, instead of creating new licensing legislation specifically for the sector, it would be cheaper and less bureaucratic.

At BECTU’s annual conference earlier this month, a motion put forward by the union’s Film Artistes’ Association was passed, calling on the general secretary to “lobby the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to protect particularly vulnerable workers by extending the Gangmasters Licensing Authority remit to cover employment agencies in the entertainment industry”.

Chair of the FAA Paul Kirby told The Stage that the GLA remit could be “extended for any industry”, adding: “We would like protection for our members and the greater public, and it can only be brought in with licensing. We want to be able to stop the shenanigans that is a cancer of industry.”

However, a spokesman for the business department said it did not feel a licensing regime was appropriate.

“Our priority is effective enforcement of the existing regulatory framework, not further licensing,” he said.