UK Government Consultation on Tackling Exploitation in the Labour Market

The UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is consulting on proposals to improve enforcement measures to tackle labour exploitation. This includes:

• establishing a statutory Director of Labour Market Enforcement
• creating a new offence of an aggravated breach of labour market legislation
• increasing intelligence and data sharing between the existing enforcement bodies
• widening the remit, increasing the powers and changing the name of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to enable it to deal with serious exploitation

This IHRB submission offers comments and recommendations to the UK Government to ensure the proposals are as robust and coherent as possible in implementing the Government's duty to protect against business-related human rights impacts.

IHRB has also joined a submission by numerous organisations representing businesses, labour providers, civil society, workers and victims of exploitation, in support of a strong, licensed system for labour providers.