Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill

I am sorry if that it is how it is coming across, because that is the last thing that I would want to convey. When I was at university, I earned a little extra money by working for Manpower for a while. I was counting traffic, which was a bit boring, for one short stint of time in Wales and on another stint I worked for the Hudson's Bay company in London. It provided great insight and it was Manpower that gave me the opportunity to have different tasters of jobs that I would not otherwise have thought of doing, so I have been on the receiving end as an agency worker. If someone is doing such agency work for a long time and no one in the household has a permanent job—in other words, someone is on a rolling programme with an agency—it makes buying a house very difficult. Getting a mortgage usually involves saying how much we earn on a permanent basis. For some people one of the benefits of being a temporary member of staff is the word ““temporary””—as at some stage the job could come to an end and that is it, as that is what has been signed up to. I accept that there are, however, clear downsides to being an agency worker and we want to minimise them as much as possible. That is why we want to ensure that such rights as currently apply are, as I mentioned earlier, properly enforced. Rights for agency and temporary workers are important. The Government told us a few moments ago that they are spending £3 million on informing people of their rights to the minimum wage. Can the Minister tell us today how much money is being spent on informing workers and employers of the rights and obligations that apply to temporary or agency workers—the implications for holidays, redundancy pay and so forth? Clearly, the Government must spend some money on informing such workers of their rights, but there is silence, so perhaps the Government are not spending much on informing agency and temporary workers of their rights.