Plans to beef up and rename the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) have been unveiled by the government.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) announced a consultation focused around several key proposals for the GLA: establishing a director of labour market enforcement, who will set priorities for the enforcement bodies across the spectrum of non-compliance; creating a new offence of aggravated breach of labour market legislation; and increasing intelligence and data sharing between existing and other bodies.
The fourth main proposal is to “widen the remit, strengthen the powers and change the name of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to enable it to tackle serious exploitation.”
The rebranded GLA will be handed 'police-style' powers, according to the consultation document.
The announcement came on a day in which business secretary Sajid Javid also announced that recruitment firms hiring solely from overseas without advertising in Britain and in English will be prevented from doing so.
GLA chief executive Paul Broadbent welcomed the development. “The GLA remains committed to working in partnership to protect vulnerable and exploited workers and the proposals within the public consultation provide a step change to doing so even more effectively.”
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