Regulatory enforcement regimes





Some important employment rights are enforced by the state through statutory regulators. Most regulators have the power to impose penalties such as fines (which are retained by the state) and enforcement notices and criminal sanctions for the most serious offences. Sometimes regulators “name and shame” offending employers publicly as a means of trying to promote compliance. Key regulators important to the employment relationship include:





• Equality and Human Rights Commission: the UK’s equalities watchdog (see Chapter 7); 



• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC): responsible for enforcing the National Minimum Wage (NMW) (see Chapter 4), for collecting tax and National Insurance, and for administering rules on some statutory payments such as statutory sick pay (see Chapter 8);





• Ministry of Justice enforcement officers: responsible for enforcing the payment of tribunal awards and collecting fines on behalf of the Treasury (see Chapter 3);




• Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EASI): responsible for enforcing standards to be met by employment agencies and employment businesses (see Chapter 2);




• Information Commissioner: responsible for enforcing data protection laws (see Chapter 15);


• Health and safety inspectors: inspectors are employed by the Health and Safety Executive or the local authority, depending on sector (see LRD’s annual legal guide Health and safety law); 





• Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA): operates a labour licensing system in some sectors, and has powers to investigate allegations of labour abuse across the labour market;



• Anti-Slavery Commissioner: enforces the prohibition of modern slavery (see below);


• Director of Labour Market Enforcement: works with the Anti-Slavery Commissioner and supervises the GLAA, EASI and the HMRC NMW enforcement team; and




• UK Visas and Immigration: part of the Home Office, responsible for border control and immigration.



In its Good Work Plan, published in December 2018, the government has signalled some planned changes to this regulatory regime, in particular a plan to expand the remit of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate. As well as plans for a new regime for the state enforcement of statutory holiday pay (see Chapter 4), the EASI is to have oversight of umbrella companies (see Chapter 2). The government is also planning a new single labour market enforcement agency.