My Lords, I am very grateful to noble Lords for speaking to their amendments in this group. I shall try to address as many of the points raised as I can at this stage, but I may have to write to noble Lords on some of the more specific ones.
I want to make one general point, which more or less relates to the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, and the noble Lord, Lord Lea. Essentially they are asking what has changed here. The Government are effectively putting themselves in a strategic position to take much tougher action against all forms of labour market abuse. In general terms, although the TUC had some reservations about the detail, which I am sure we will come to, in a broader sense it welcomed the fact that the Government were taking this matter very seriously, wanting to join up different agencies which are all doing a very good job, to give them a stronger strategic position and, of course, more powers. Those powers would include the ability for rogue employers to be jailed. These are serious powers and I will come back to the comments of my noble friend Lord Hailsham on their use, because that is a very important point for us to consider.
It should be remembered that we are extending the base of the resources. In some of the amendments we have covered the additional resources that will be available to the agencies—for example, the Organised Immigration Crime Task Force and the National Crime Agency, which we dealt with in the Serious Crime Act, and there is also immigration enforcement. Organised crime syndicates are massively exploiting this area. Information will be shared and we will be receiving information from different areas. That is part of a big approach that we are taking to nail some of the abuse that has been going on for far too long.
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When it comes to resources—a key point referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Alton—again, it is right that we get down into the detail. I was making a rough note of some figures I had quoted earlier, which I shall have to check. Effectively we are bringing together three agencies and putting in a new Director of Labour Market Enforcement. The Bill sets out that there will be funding to enable the director to do his or her job. Therefore, let us say that that is an additional element of funding. Beneath that, we have the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, whose budget is about £2.48 million, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, whose budget is about half a million pounds—a relatively small sum—and the national minimum wage enforcement function. The latter has by far the greatest number of staff and by far the greatest budget, standing at £9 million last year. Therefore, the total across those three groups for last year was £12 million.
In his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced that a further £4 million would be going to the minimum wage task force, and the regulations, which were prayed against just before we started this Committee stage, provide for additional fines to be levied on employers. The task force’s budget was increased from £9 million to £13.2 million. Therefore, over the past year the overall pot for labour market enforcement has increased from £12 million to £16 million—a 25% increase, which is quite substantial—and there are additional
powers. I am not saying that a headline figure of that nature is going to answer everybody’s questions but it underscores that we are genuinely putting resources and legislative power behind the efforts to tackle labour market abuse.
I turn to some of the points that were raised. The noble Lord, Lord Rosser, asked about the relationship between the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and immigration enforcement. It is entirely possible that the GLAA will become aware of a situation involving gangmasters that also involves illegal working and the employment of illegal workers. In such circumstances, it is vital that a defined partnership exists to enable the exchange of information while ensuring that roles remain distinct. This already happens and we are taking the opportunity to formulate how that relationship works. This is part of what I referred to earlier. Often—we are told by the prosecuting authorities—when someone is guilty of an offence in one area, they are an offender in multiple areas.
I was asked about GLA prosecutions, and this relates to the points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Alton. Over time, the GLA has undertaken a number of more complex investigations that focus more effectively on serious and organised crime. This reflects a targeted and risk-based enforcement approach by the GLA. This year alone, the GLA has undertaken 92 such investigations—already more than the 72 undertaken in 2014 and the highest level since 2011. Again, I am not trying to escape from the resources point; I am trying to say that the GLA, which we all defer to in admiration, is doing more work more effectively, and we expect it to undertake more investigations.
The noble Lord, Lord Rosser, also asked why the GLAA has to carry out its functions in accordance with the strategy rather than having to have regard to the strategy, as other enforcement bodies do. The GLAA board remains responsible for the delivery of the GLAA functions but it now sits within the wider strategic approach of tackling labour exploitation. Enforcement bodies will be responsible for delivering aspects of the strategy but the legislative difference will be driven by their different legal identities. In practice, the same expectation will apply to all three enforcement bodies—that is, they will now follow the director’s strategy.
On the strategy of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and the point that the noble Baroness, Lady Donaghy, was making, it is important to remember that such abuse can be investigated across any sector, so it is not restricted to the traditional areas in which the Gangmasters Licensing Authority operated. It can look at labour abuse wherever it is found, including in construction. Again, I would have thought that that would be broadly welcomed.