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Mr. Pond: I thank my hon. Friend for that support and agree with him that we must view children's employment in this country, especially children's illegal employment, in the context of what is happening in the world. One of the points that international organisations such as the International Labour Organisation and the Council of Europe constantly make is that, throughout the world, children are being used as a hidden but important part of the labour force and are therefore being placed at risk.
It is a great danger to say that the only problems of illegal and exploitative child employment happen elsewhere in the world. Unless we deal with that issue in this country, we shall not be in a position to deal with it in some poorer countries. I am pleased that the Secretary of State for International Development has made that point on several occasions in the House.
I have said that the EU directive was resisted by the previous Government, who argued at the time that the directive would be a threat to the British tradition of newspaper delivery. We hear echoes of that argument today. The Government at the time secured an opt-out from one of the directive's main provisions: the weekly limit of 12 hours' work during term time for school-age children; current UK legislation and byelaws allow, between them, up to 17 or 20 hours a week.
The directive has still not been implemented in Britain, but the present Government have given a commitment, which I welcome, to implement it urgently. However, without further lengthy consultation, the opt-out that was negotiated by the previous Government will have to remain in place for the time being. One of the main purposes of the Bill is to implement that 12-hour limit, bringing us into line with every other EU country.
In the remaining time that I have at my disposal, I want to outline why we need the Bill, drawing on some of the evidence of the extent and effect of unregulated child employment. I then want to describe how the Bill seeks to tackle those problems.
I think that all of us in the Chamber are aware of the extent of child employment in this country. It is well documented. Surveys by the Low Pay Unit in London and Birmingham, by Norfolk county council, by Paisley and Greenwich universities and by the TUC all come to similar conclusions: about four in 10 school-age children have some form of paid employment during term time. That implies that children represent a hidden work force of almost 2 million throughout the country.
Why is that in itself a problem? All of us agree that an early glimpse of the world of work can be beneficial. It encourages a sense of independence and responsibility, and provides extra pocket money for the things that children want, which parents nowadays often cannot afford. We have to recognise that, with a fifth
of households not having an adult in employment, in many households, the child may be the only member of the family bringing in any earnings, however small.
Mr. Jeremy Corbyn (Islington, North):
I understand what my hon. Friend says about the number of households with no adults in employment, but it is dangerous to say that, because there are many unemployed adults, we should encourage children to work to supplement the family income. Surely the issue should be addressing the need for adult work rather than promoting child work to assist family income.
Mr. Pond:
My hon. Friend makes an important point. We must understand the circumstances in which children are employed. Even if we do not condone such employment, we must accept that for many families the income may be important. The Bill tries to provide better protection for children, to ensure that they are not placed at risk. I shall return to some of my hon. Friend's concerns.
Problems arise when children's safety is placed at risk, when the work damages their education or when they are exploited as cheap labour. Research shows that about three quarters of all children who are employed in the UK are employed illegally in terms of the 1933 legislation and local authority byelaws. That suggests that 1.5 million children are working illegally.
The Department of Health briefing for the debate states that
We should not be complacent about the fact that the majority of children are employed without work permits. Hon. Members will have seen the reports of a survey that was published this week by the Low Pay Unit. The survey was based on more than 1,000 school-age children in the north-east, and confirmed the findings of earlier studies that were undertaken elsewhere in the country. The survey found that almost 40 per cent. of working children were employed before 7 o'clock in the morning or after 7 o'clock in the evening, although that is specifically prohibited under the 1933 legislation. The Bill would treat such infringements rather more seriously than does the present law.
Almost one in 10 of the boys in the survey were doing jobs that are prohibited by the Employment of Women, Young Persons and Children Act 1920 and the 1933 Act. They included work on building sites, door-to-door selling or factory work. A quarter of the children were below the legal working age of 13. One in 10 12-year-olds were working, as were one in six 11 and 12-year-olds. We cannot dismiss illegal child employment as simply a paperwork error by absent-minded employers. I have no doubt that the majority of employers are themselves
victims of the complexities of the current law. The Bill seeks to address that as well, and proposes tough measures against employers who wilfully put children at risk by breaking the law.
Another reason for not being complacent about illegal child employment is that it places young people's safety at risk. An analysis by the Child Accident Prevention Trust of an earlier Low Pay Unit survey found that more than a third of employed children are involved in accidents at work. Injuries included cuts and burns, those resulting from road accidents, falls, broken bones and assaults. Nearly a third of those accidents required medical attention.
A boy in my constituency who was, I think, below the legal minimum working age at the time, was hit by a lorry while on his newspaper round. His hopes of a promising future in football were dashed in a few moments. Among the 317 reported fatalities and serious injuries since 1990 was a 14-year-old boy who was employed in a Manchester bedding factory for £1 an hour. His arm was trapped in an unguarded machine and he sustained severe injuries. The employer was fined £200 with £438 costs for illegally employing the child. A 15-year-old boy fell into a vat of water that was used to rinse metals, in a company near Birmingham where he was employed to make tea and sweep up. The boy suffered irreversible brain damage and poisoning. Those are the dramatic cases that make the headlines, but day in, day out children are placed at risk of injury because of inadequate enforcement of the law. We have a responsibility to provide them with the protection that they deserve.
Hon. Members will be pleased to know that I do not propose to go through the Bill clause by clause. They will have had adequate briefings on the Bill, especially from the Library, which I commend, and from the organisations that support the measure. I shall merely describe its general objectives. The Bill was carefully drafted after consultation with major children's charities, trade unions, local authority child employment officers and employers. I am grateful to the Low Pay Unit and the Public Bill Office for their help and guidance.
We have sought to build on existing foundations rather than start from scratch. The Bill incorporates the main provisions of existing legislation, as well as the European Union directive and the draft model byelaws that were proposed by the Department of Health. In only a few, albeit important, respects are wholly new provisions proposed. The intention is to create a measure that takes from the best of what exists and has been extensively consulted upon, to achieve a workable and effective measure that will provide the protection that children deserve.
"this does not mean that these children are all employed in sweatshops. In the majority of cases, it means simply that the child is not registered for work."
I agree that the majority of children do not have work permits, and the Bill seeks to address that. The absence of such permits causes concern, because employers who fail to secure work permits for the children whom they employ will find that their employers' liability insurance is null and void. If a child is involved in an accident, the employer will be personally liable. Employers who fail to secure work permits are likely to be infringing the law in other ways, and the Bill seeks to address that.
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