Regulatory enforcement regimes




Some important employment rights are enforced by statutory regulators. Regulators have the power to impose penalties such as fines and enforcement notices, and sometimes to “name and shame” offending employers. 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) and for collecting tax and National Insurance (see Chapter 4);




• 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 14);


• Health and safety inspectors employed by the Health and Safety Executive and local authority health and safety inspectors (see LRD’s annual 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 (see below);


• Anti-Slavery Commissioner (see below);




• Director of Labour Market Enforcement: The first Director was appointed in January 2017, to work with the Anti-Slavery Commissioner and supervise 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.