Tory peer calls on parliament and employers to take on more interns

Lord Lucas urged the government to allow employers to pay interns what they would otherwise have received in benefits.

Labour peers also pressed ministers to ensure that internships were open to all regardless of income.

At question time in the House of Lords, Lord Lucas asked business minister Baroness Wilcox: “Will the government encourage all employers and notably parliament to take on more interns at a time when that would be a service to the nation, particularly those children and young people who cannot afford to go without income?”

He called on the government “to make sure there are no prosecutions or fines for those employers who chose to make up for hard-up interns the jobseeker’s allowance they lose by becoming interns”.

Labour peer Lord Lea of Crondall said the system at present was “biased in favour of people who can afford to have mummy and daddy give them enough to live on, as opposed to those people who are not in that position”.

Lady Wilcox said there was no legal definition of an intern. She added: “One is either a worker or a volunteer.”

She said internships and work experience offered an “excellent opportunity to bridge the gap between education and the workplace” and it was important not to close down such schemes.