The employment relations minister Ed Davey has outlined the government’s plans to avoid any “future AWRs”.

Ed Davey told a breakfast meeting organised by Headstart Employment at Epsom Downs Racecourse earlier this month: “We don’t want another piece of legislation like AWR [Agency Workers Regulation], but legislation that is more in line with the British labour market.”

Davey outlined his strategy to win over the EU to Britain’s way of thinking. “I am not starry-eyed about the EU. I believe that we need to engage with Europe, get in there early and win people over to our way of thinking.”

He said the plan was to work with other free market and liberal governments, namely the Dutch, the Nordics, the Germans and the Poles, that he said were “in a stand off” with those of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and France.

“We can get a majority who think like we do and back a free market liberal approach,” said Davey. “This takes time, but if we do that I think that we can stop things like AWR coming out of the Brussels legislative machine.”

Davey added that despite his misgivings on AWR, “we can show that we can make it work”.

I am not starry-eyed about the EU. I believe that we need to engage with Europe, get in there early and win people over to our way of thinking

Davey referred to the ongoing review of compliance and enforcement across the sector (see Recruiter, 9 March). “It’s very early days,” he said. However, he added: “We will not be increasing the number of inspectors, because we haven’t got the money. We need to streamline better.” However, he added that there was a need to be proportionate and to adopt a risk-based approach.

“It’s always going to mean that some people will escape the net. A large number of agencies do things the right way, and we don’t want to strangle them in visits but to target our investigations on the rogues.”