A recruitment agency owned by Dragons’ Den star James Caan has been fined by regulators over a price-fixing scandal.

Eden Brown, which is owned by Caan’s HB Human Capital investment fund, is one of six companies hit with Office of Fair Trading penalties totalling £39m.

The companies were also accused of a collective boycott of another company in the supply of candidates to the construction industry.

The actions for which the firms were penalised took place prior to HB Human Capital’s acquisition of Eden Brown in 2007.

FTSE 250 firm Hays was fined £30m but said it was considering an appeal on the basis the penalty was “wholly disproportionate to the activities to which it relates”.

The OFT concluded that the companies all breached the Competition Act 1998 in their treatment of rival agency Parc.

In 2003, Parc entered the market to act as an intermediary between construction companies and different recruitment agencies. Some recruitment agencies saw Parc as a threat to their margins.

Instead of competing with Parc – and each other – on price and quality, the companies formed a cartel, referred to as ‘the Construction Recruitment Forum’, which met five times between 2004 and 2006.

In this forum, they agreed to boycott Parc, and also co-operated to fix the fee rates they would charge to intermediaries, such as Parc, and also certain construction companies.

Heather Clayton, OFT senior director, said: “This is a serious breach of competition law and the level of fines reflects this.

“Cartels such as these can impact on other businesses, in this case construction companies, by distorting competition and therefore preventing firms from driving down costs.

“Ultimately it is the consumer and the wider economy that loses out.”

Courtesy of SKY NEWS

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Children as young as seven are to be offered careers guidance under a government scheme in England.

The programme, which aims to broaden the horizons and raise the aspirations of children from deprived backgrounds, is to be piloted in seven local areas.

Universities and firms will give pupils a glimpse of what it is like working and learning in adulthood, as part of a broader new careers strategy.

Under the scheme, careers advice will continue up to the age of 18.

It is being trialled in 38 primary schools in seven local authority areas: Bristol, Coventry, Gateshead, Manchester, Plymouth, Reading and York.

The pilot comes after education charity the Sutton Trust called for universities to do outreach work with primary pupils.

‘High aspirations’

The programme aims to challenge some of the “negative stereotyping” that leads some children from poorer backgrounds to believe that universities and certain careers are out of reach for them.

Children will be offered career-related learning in a range of areas to raise awareness of what they can achieve.

It is hoped this will lay the foundations for them to make good subject choices in secondary schools and inspire them to do well.

As part of the new careers strategy, parents will be urged to think while their children are still in primary school about what jobs they might want to do.

Online advice

New research suggests that many children have very high aspirations at age 11, with 75% saying they want to go to university.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families wants teachers and parents to build on this to get children thinking about higher education, especially those from homes where no members of their family have been to university before.

The department stresses the scheme is not about helping children decide what job they want to do, but showing them what can be possible so they fulfil their potential.

There will also be more help for disadvantaged and disabled young people in accessing work experience and every young person is to get a careers mentor.

Children are also to be offered good information, advice and guidance online on Facebook, YouTube and other social networking sites.

Courtesy of BBC News

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