Closed call for evidence

Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2025 to 2026: call for evidence

Published 4 November 2024

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government License v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this license, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third-party copyright information, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at: LMEDirectorsoffice@businessandtrade.gov.uk

General information

Call for evidence details

Issued: 4 November 2024

Respond by: 13 December 2024

Enquiries to: LMEDirectorsoffice@businessandtrade.gov.uk

How to respond

Email to: LMEDirectorsoffice@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Confidentiality and data protection

Information you provide in response to this call for evidence, including personal information, may be disclosed in accordance with UK legislation (the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004).

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please tell us, but be aware that we cannot guarantee confidentiality in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not be regarded by us as a confidentiality request.

We will process your personal data in accordance with all applicable UK and EU data protection laws. See our privacy policy.

Quality assurance

This call for evidence has been carried out in accordance with the government’s consultation principles.

If you have any complaints about the way this call for evidence has been conducted, please email LMEDirectorsoffice@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Introduction

This call for evidence sets out the issues on which Margaret Beels, the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, seeks evidence to inform her strategy for 2025 to 2026.

The Labour Market Enforcement Strategy for 2025 to 2026 is due to be delivered to government in March 2025.

For this, we need:

• written feedback on these questions and any relevant evidence that you may wish to bring to our attention by 13 December 2024
• stakeholder engagement (round table meetings and partner visits) to hear views and evidence from stakeholders directly, scheduled for November and early December 2024

Should partners wish to host a roundtable that the director and the Office of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement (ODLME) officials can attend to discuss any of these issues this would also be welcomed.

We are especially keen to hear the views of workers themselves.

Background

Director of Labour Market Enforcement

The role of Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME) was created in 2017 to bring together a coherent assessment of the extent of labour market exploitation, identifying routes to tackle exploitation and harnessing the strength of the 3 main enforcement bodies:

• HMRC National Minimum Wage (NMW)
• the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA)
• the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS)

Each year, the director submits a Labour Market Enforcement Strategy to government to set priorities for the 3 main enforcement bodies.

Employment Rights Bill – Fair Work Agency

On 10 October 2024, the government introduced an Employment Rights Bill to parliament, including the establishment of a Fair Work Agency (FWA)^{[footnote 1]}.

The FWA is intended to bring together existing state enforcement of labour rights (HMRC NMW, GLAA, and EAS) along with the functions of the DLME. The FWA will also include enforcement of holiday pay and statutory sick pay.

Passage of the Employment Rights Bill will run broadly in parallel to the DLME call for evidence and preparation of the 2025 to 2026 LME Strategy. We expect more detail on the government’s plans for the FWA to emerge over this period. However, we also understand there are no planned government consultations specifically related to the FWA itself.

We understand the FWA will not become operational before the 2026 to 2027 financial year.

Aim and structure of the call for evidence

Given the move towards the FWA and recognising the timing of delivery, and likely publication, of the director’s 2025 to 2026 Labour Market Enforcement Strategy, this call for evidence is very much focused on what the enforcement bodies need to be doing to prepare for the transition and to help ensure the FWA is a success.

Alongside a series of roundtables ODLME is planning in November and early December 2024, we are publishing a call for written evidence.

This call for evidence is structured in 3 sections:

• section 1: about you
• section 2: questions relating to the 4 themes
• section 3: other issues you may wish to raise

It is not expected that you answer every question. You are of course welcome to submit any documents (for example, research, reports or media articles) to which you refer in your evidence.

We may wish to quote evidence received in the published strategy to support its conclusions and recommendations and will attribute these to the individual or organisation that supplied it, unless we are explicitly asked not to do so. Accordingly, please highlight whether any of the information you submit is of a sensitive nature or if you wish to remain anonymous.

Please send your evidence to LMEDirectorsoffice@businessandtrade.gov.uk by Friday 13 December 2024.

Feel free to contact the office at the same address if you have any questions.

Call for evidence questions

Employment rights enforcement priorities and governance

1. Briefly, and in no more than 100 words, what do you believe should be the priorities for employment rights enforcement as we transition to the FWA?

2. The FWA will take some time to be set up. What should priorities be for the enforcement bodies before then? What should be FWA medium to longer-term priorities and why?

3. The FWA will have a statutory duty to publish annual reports and a triannual strategy, overseen by a social partnership board with tripartite representation from business representatives, trade unions and independent experts. What data and reporting should the FWA publish to ensure good accountability and transparency, via these publications or otherwise?

Communication and engagement

1. How do you expect stakeholders to be engaged by the FWA and what do you see as the benefits?

2. By which channels might awareness of the FWA be increased before and once it is established and why do you recommend them?

3. Where can communications around compliance and enforcement be improved such that workers are aware of their rights and their obligations? What evidence do you have that they work?

4. Who do you see as the key partners for the FWA thinking both of other agencies or wider stakeholders (for example, by sector) and why?

Resourcing and prioritisation

1. What should the 3 enforcement bodies be doing now to ensure the FWA achieves sustained and lasting improvements in employer compliance?

2. How should the FWA prioritise its resource between compliance measures (helping employers) and enforcement measures (punishing poor practice, deliberate and serious non-compliance)? How might its success in both areas be assessed?

3. What are the key labour market non-compliance risks for which the FWA needs to be ready? What is the evidence for this?

4. Holiday pay will be a new area of enforcement for the FWA. Where are the key priority areas as regards holiday pay non-compliance (for example, by employment model or by sector) and how might these risks be tackled?

Moving towards a FWA

1. What do you value about the present practices of the 3 employment bodies that you want to see continued by the FWA and why?

2. What would you like to see done differently?

3. The enforcement bodies currently use different approaches for compliance and enforcement – which of these do you think are most effective and should therefore be preferred for the FWA and why?

4. In establishing the FWA is there any good practice you would like to highlight from other UK and/or international regulators/enforcement bodies, either in the labour market enforcement space or beyond?

---

1. Make Work Pay - GOV.UK ↩