My Lords, as this is the first day of Report, I will put some general comments on the record. I thank all noble Lords for their engagement with officials over the period between Committee and Report. We have had eight all-interested Peers meetings, numerous bilateral meetings and significant engagements. We even had some external visits. As a result of all that, I have written a number of letters, including to the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, and to others, that even St Paul would be proud of. As a result of listening to the points and concerns that were raised by noble Lords from all sides of the House in Committee, as well as before then, we have a number of new proposals that I believe will go a long way to addressing those. In fact, ahead of Report, we tabled more than 100 government amendments to the Bill and tried to expand on, through a number of letters, the implications of what is being proposed.
I wanted to preface my remarks on this group of amendments by putting on record my thanks to all noble Lords for their engagement with the process. We hope that we have made progress which proves acceptable to your Lordships.
I want to draw your Lordships’ attention to two key issues in the Government’s amendments in this group: first, the Director of Labour Market Enforcement’s intelligence hub and, secondly, changes in light of recommendations from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee.
Clause 6 requires the director to gather, store, process, analyse and disseminate information relating to non-compliance in the labour market. This enables the director to produce an evidence-based annual strategy. Our amendments will enable this through operating an effective intelligence hub.
The enforcement bodies covered by the strategy are the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, HMRC’s national minimum wage team and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. They will supply the majority of information and intelligence for the director’s work. Amendment 2 requires the director to include information-sharing matters in the annual strategy; for example, frequency of provision of information. Amendment 10 allows the director to request information from those bodies, and vice versa, throughout the year. Other bodies may also hold intelligence useful for the strategy. Amendment 8 allows anyone to share information with the director or staff in the intelligence hub where it relates to the director’s functions. The amendment also enables the director and intelligence hub staff to share information with specific named persons, listed in a new schedule inserted by Amendment 11, if relevant to the functions of those persons. There is a power to add to the list by regulations through the affirmative procedure. We are committed to data security. Amendment 9 sets out restrictions to ensure the information is used and shared appropriately. This contains specific provisions for the intelligence services and HMRC.
It is vital that the three labour market enforcement bodies have gateways allowing them to share information with other enforcement bodies. Amendment 29 will allow the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate to share information with the Employment Agency Inspectorate in Northern Ireland, the Pensions Regulator and the Care Quality Commission, enabling collaboration across organisations. We want the GLAA to have the necessary gateways to share information relating to its new role. Amendment 32 therefore enables it to share information encompassing all labour market enforcement functions within the director’s remit and LME undertakings and orders. Reflecting the GLAA’s new role enforcing modern slavery offences, Amendment 38 inserts a new section into the Modern Slavery Act 2015 allowing disclosure of information to the GLAA from specified persons, and vice versa. A new schedule in the Modern Slavery Act 2015 will list those specified persons. There will be a power to add to this list, subject to the affirmative procedure. Other amendments allow the GLAA, HMRC’s NMW team and the EAS to share information relating to the new LME undertakings and orders in this Bill.
The next amendments are those that address specifically concerns raised by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee report, for which we were very grateful, and its concerns particularly about some powers in Chapter 1. We are happy to accept its recommendations. Amendment 13 therefore makes the power to extend the purposes for which officers of the GLAA can be given PACE powers subject to the affirmative, rather than negative, procedure and thus to rigorous parliamentary scrutiny. The committee’s second recommendation concerned the new LME undertakings and orders. Amendments 26 and 27 provide
that the code of practice governing their use by enforcement bodies will be subject to parliamentary oversight by being brought into force by a statutory instrument subject to the negative procedure. The committee’s third recommendation related to the GLAA’s licensing rules. Amendments 31 and 33 maintain the introduction of licensing rules by statutory instrument and not simply by publication, but with the added requirement of approval by the Home Secretary.
3.45 pm
As the GLAA’s expanded role under the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 applies only in Great Britain, Amendments 36 to 38 preserve the Act as it is in Northern Ireland. Our other amendments are mainly technical and ensure that the legislation enables the Director of Labour Market Enforcement and enforcement bodies to tackle labour market law breaches and protect vulnerable workers.
Amendments 1 and 28 enable the Government to make provision for the director to receive a pension, in addition to paying a salary and other necessary expenses. Amendments 5, 6 and 7 ensure that the scope of the director’s labour market enforcement strategy covers all the enforcement bodies’ work by including the new LME undertakings and orders and slavery and trafficking prevention orders obtained by the GLAA where the offence is secondary or inchoate, such as aiding or inciting, or where there was no conviction due to insanity or disability.
Amendment 12 amends the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 to reflect that future enforcement may be through more than one body—HMRC’s national minimum wage team and the GLAA. We want reciprocal powers for the GLAA and certain bodies to ask for assistance. Amendments 14 to 20 will specify those bodies in legislation. They clarify that the power to add bodies to these lists can be used only for bodies whose functions are reserved. I can assure noble Lords that we are removing the National Crime Agency from the list only because it already has the right to ask for assistance through the Crime and Courts Act 2013.
Amendments 21 to 25 change the provisions on the court procedures relating to LME undertakings and orders to clarify when and which court can vary or discharge an LME order. Amendment 40 clarifies that the regulation-making powers in this chapter will be used only for reserved matters. Amendments 41, 42 and 43 provide definitions to aid interpretation of this chapter. Amendments 152 and 153 change the territorial extent clause of the Bill to reflect the position in the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Finally, Amendment 38 repeals Section 55 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and the duty on the Secretary of State to consult on the role of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority. This is redundant with our recent consultation and the publication of our response. I beg to move.