Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill

I certainly agree that, where breaches of existing law take place, the existing law should be enforced. It is one of the features of the debate that some of the abuses raised are breaches of existing law. I shall say more about that. Looking at the labour market as a whole, things are significantly better for people at work in the UK than a decade ago. Employment is up, with more than 29 million people in work, and the UK enjoys the highest employment rate in the G7. Unemployment is down and wages have increased by some 51 per cent. over the past decade. Workers in the UK also enjoy better rights, many of which extend to agency workers, including rights to the minimum wage, coverage by discrimination legislation, working time legislation, and statutory maternity, adoption and paternity pay. The Labour Government have not, through improvements that we have made, somehow created a situation in which employment cannot grow in the UK. In the past decade, unlike under the Conservative Government, we have had growth in employment and an improvement in standards for people at work.