A call for evidence: Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2023 – 2024

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (‘BEIS’) confirmed in their published Government consultation, the Good Work Plan, that the following enforcement bodies would be merged together to create a new agency:

• Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate;
• Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority; and
• HMRC National Minimum Wage/National Living Wage Team.

Margaret Beels OBE, the new Director of Labour Market Enforcement has issued a call for evidence to inform her labour market enforcement strategy for 2023 to 2024.

In order to do this, the Director is seeking evidence on the emerging issues around compliance and enforcement in the UK labour market, specifically relating to:

• the scale and nature of the labour non-compliance threat;
• challenges in terms of compliance and enforcement; and
• views and ideas as to how the challenges may be overcome.

Evidence will be collected up until 11.45pm on 31 May 2022 ahead of the delivery of the Labour Market Enforcement Strategy in Autumn 2022.

How might this affect UK employers?

The new agency created by BEIS will take on the responsibility of:

• tackling modern slavery;
• protecting agency workers; and
• enforcing minimum wage.

These are all areas where the Government is keen to make sure that the most vulnerable workers are protected.

It seems likely that the Government will make use of the evidence collected during the consultation process to identify where there are particular areas of concern, and that the efforts of the new agency will be focussed on those areas.

For more information on this article, please contact Charles Pallot or Sophie Borrie.