John Hutton, secretary of state for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has endorsed the role of agencies in providing a flexible workforce, and in getting people into full-time work.

In an interview with The Times, Hutton argues that the proposed EU Agency Workers’ Directive, which the British government blocked earlier this month, would be bad for both business, and workers.

Hutton, says: “We won’t accept a deal that is not in the UK’s best interest, we will not accept a deal that undermines essential market flexibility.

“Effectively the worse outcome of all would be to penalise or somehow impose an extra charge and therefore make uneconomic agency work itself, which many companies regard as an important way of filling vacancies and so on.

Hutton continues: “In  the UK about half of agency workers go on to find full-time employment within 12 months or so. A very substantial chunk of those are people who have been long-term benefit claimants.

“Agency work is a kind of bridge between benefit and full-time employment, and I am definitely not going to pull up that bridge for tens of thousands of workers, who will only find a way back into full-time work through agency work.”