Employment Rights Bill

Lord Paddick Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 18th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hamwee (LD)]

My Lords, Amendment 273P is a real-world amendment, to echo my noble friend. I am very conscious that I have a single amendment to this Bill, that others have laboured into what is day 10, I think, and that noble Lords are waiting for the important discussion on the Casey review, so I will try to be almost telegraphic.

This amendment is about a firewall, with the objective of protecting workers who are in great need of protection, so it is squarely within the fair work agency’s client base, if you like. The firewall would restrict the disclosure for use for immigration purposes of information about someone who has suffered or witnessed labour abuse. That may sound counterintuitive: surely these are people about whom all the agencies of the state should have information. In the case of migrant workers, the situation is not so straightforward. It was during the passage of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 that I first heard about the conditions in which some overseas domestic workers existed—I use that term rather than “lived”. Slavery was the right term. A change in the rules was made, but it was minor and quite inadequate. Our law did not and does not protect them and all migrant workers as it should.

Migrant workers, not only overseas domestic workers, are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, not just because of the consequences if their existence comes to the attention of immigration authorities but because of their fear of the consequences. If you do not know your way around the system, you are on the wrong side of the power balance with an unscrupulous employer who can threaten that you will be detained or deported, or that you will have your children taken away, so you cannot take the risk of reporting abuse and exploitation to anyone in authority.

I understand that that fear is well founded. I am told by the sector that evidence indicates that data is often shared between labour market enforcement agencies, the police and immigration enforcement. They have no obligation to share, but they do. In a way, that is not surprising; they have their own jobs to do. I am not surprised, because I have a long history of opposition to paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to the Data Protection Act, which allows that sharing—opposition with which someone who is now in a very high place in the current Government became associated and led the troops into the right Lobby.

The current situation has a widespread effect. It fosters mistrust of migrant communities, prevents the police and labour inspectors doing their jobs properly, and drives down conditions for all workers. Secure reporting has been implemented elsewhere, including in the Netherlands and in Spain, and I am pleased to say that Surrey Police has implemented a firewall and the Greater London Authority is undertaking a pilot. Had I more time, I would explain the detail.

Secure reporting mechanisms are badly needed in many sectors, such as agriculture, health, social care, cleaning and domestic work. Your immigration status should not mean that you should not have access to safe, decent working conditions and be protected against abuse and exploitation. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London, who have signed my amendment, as has my noble friend Lord Paddick. In turn, I have signed his two amendments in this group. They are probing amendments. They are hugely important because they seek to ensure that the fair work agency, which is not a legal entity but will be an agency of the Department for Business and Trade created administratively, can carry out all the powers and functions of the GLAA, or that somebody does, because what the GLAA is able to do in this area must not slip out of the legislative framework. I beg to move.

[Lord Paddick (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I will speak to Amendments 279ZA and 279ZB, which are in my name and that of my friend, the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee. Before I speak to them, I will say how much I support her Amendment 273PA.

My amendments are probing amendments, as the noble Baroness just said, to seek reassurances from the Minister that the fair work agency will have the capacity and focus to maintain the safeguards provided by the Modern Slavery Act that are currently undertaken by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority—the GLAA. I am grateful to Dame Sara Thornton, a former Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, and her colleagues at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University for highlighting these issues.

The GLAA has two important responsibilities under the Modern Slavery Act in this context: it is a first responder referring victims of modern slavery into the national referral mechanism, and it has a duty to notify the Secretary of State for the Home Department in cases where victims of modern slavery refuse to be referred, to ensure that the Home Office has a comprehensive understanding of the nature and extent of modern slavery and those affected by it. My understanding is that, under this Bill, the GLAA will be abolished and its responsibilities will be taken over by the fair work agency, but it is not clear from the legislation whether the GLAA’s first responder status and duty to notify will also be transferred, or whether amendments such as those proposed are necessary to ensure that those important responsibilities and duties are carried out by the fair work agency once the GLAA is abolished.

In addition, the GLAA is focused on protecting vulnerable and exploited workers and on illegal activities such as human trafficking, forced labour and illegal labour provision, whereas the fair work agency will have a much wider remit, including what is currently in HMRC’s national minimum wage unit and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate. Staff expertise in modern slavery may be lost, and if the fair work agency is not adequately resourced, the emphasis is likely to be on compliance rather than enforcement. By ensuring that the fair work agency has first responder status and a duty to notify, it is more likely to retain its level of expertise in modern slavery.

Under Section 43 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the GLAA has a duty to co-operate with the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, enabling the commissioner to access unpublished information that assists in understanding and responding to modern slavery in the UK. Again, it is unclear whether the fair work agency will also have a statutory duty to co-operate with the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner in the same way as the GLAA, which it is replacing. The second amendment would make that duty explicit.

Can the Minister reassure the Committee that the focus on modern slavery is not being lost or diluted by the absorption of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority into the fair work agency, either through a lack of resources or a lack of expertise, and that the GLAA’s statutory responsibilities as a first responder, its duty to notify and its duty to co-operate with the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner will not be lost or diluted as a result of these changes? I look forward to the Minister’s response.