Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): I note that the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Mr Muir, indicated that he was content to support a legislative consent motion (LCM), subject to the Employment Rights Bill being amended to give an assurance that the relevant power will not be exercisable in the absence of NI Assembly approval. I welcome the officials from DAERA and DFC, who are here to brief the Committee and answer any questions. After the briefing, I hope that they will be able to tell us whether the Minister got the amendment that he sought. We are joined by Nichola Connery from DAERA and Richard Jordan from DFC. You are very welcome. I invite you to make your presentation, after which members will ask questions.

Ms Nichola Connery (Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs): Good afternoon, Chair, and thank you for the opportunity to attend the Committee today. We are pleased to have the opportunity to speak to you about the legislative consent motion for the Employment Rights Bill. I will keep my presentation brief, as the Committee was provided with two previous written briefings on the Bill at its meetings on 13 November 2024 and 23 January 2025.

The Bill was amended on 27 January 2025, and, while we have determined that there are no amendments change the policy intent, the numbering of the clauses has since changed, and you have been provided with a short update to clarify that. The Committee is aware that this is a cross-cutting Bill and that the legislative consent motion is being led by DFC. As well as engaging DAERA, the Bill engages DFE and DOF. The Committee for Communities will consider this matter on Thursday 27 February, and DAERA, DFE and DOF officials have been invited to attend that Committee meeting.

The United Kingdom Government (UKG) intend that the Employment Rights Bill will improve workplace conditions, extend employee protections, modernise employment laws, enhance existing provisions and introduce new rights across a number of regimes, cutting across a number of Departments. The new UKG committed to introducing the legislation within 100 days of entering office. That commitment and the wide-ranging and cross-cutting nature of the proposed measures meant that significant work was required to obtain clarity on the aspects of the Bill that might fall to NI Departments, in order to consider the need to extend provisions by way of an LCM.

As a result, an LCM relating to the devolved matters is only now being progressed, led by Minister Lyons. For DAERA, the Bill will allow for the establishment of a single, UK-wide enforcement body to be known as the Fair Work Agency (FWA), which will bring together existing enforcement functions. To facilitate that, the Bill abolishes the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), transfers its functions to the FWA and makes certain saving provisions with respect to the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 1977.

The GLAA is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) that is sponsored by the Home Office and operates UK-wide under the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 to tackle worker exploitation, tax evasion and health and safety negligence. In Northern Ireland, its operations are funded through DAERA, and the GLAA currently employs two Northern Ireland-based enforcement officers. Locally, the GLAA licenses labour providers, employment agencies and gangmasters who provide workers in the agriculture, horticulture and shellfish-gathering sectors, including any associated processing and packaging businesses.

As noted, the Bill will abolish the GLAA and, in doing so, will amend the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004. It is our understanding that the functions currently carried out in Northern Ireland by the GLAA will not change on the ground. The important work that the GLAA carries out in Northern Ireland will continue as it does now. The UKG sees the abolition of the GLAA and other enforcement bodies and the bringing together of their respective functions under the FWA as a positive change. The aim is to bring about efficiencies, to create a single place to which workers and businesses can turn for help and to pool intelligence resources to help enforcement agencies to better protect workers from exploitation.

I will now turn to the saving provision in the Bill in respect of the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) (Northern Ireland ) Order 1977. The Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) for Northern Ireland is a statutory body that meets three times a year to determine the minimum gross wages payable to agriculture workers and set some conditions for holiday and sick pay entitlement. The saving provision maintains the status quo for the AWB here so that it is not impacted on by provisions in the Bill that relate to the transfer of enforcement officers to the Secretary of State.

The clauses in the amended Bill that are of interest to DAERA are clause 118, which provides for the abolition of the GLAA, and clause 119, which provides for consequential amendments to ensure that the legislation remains operable, including the 2004 Act, the details of which are set out in schedule 8. In addition, clause 124 confers a power on the Secretary of State to make provision that is consequential to any provision made by the Bill. That is a standard clause that permits the making of consequential amendments that may be required to maintain the proper functioning of the statute book. Schedule 9 deals with schemes to permit the transfer of staff, property, rights and liabilities from the GLAA to the Secretary of State. It ensures that, in doing so, the rights of staff are protected and the validity of any of the functions being transferred are not affected. Finally, schedule 9 also contains the saving provisions for the AWB referred to earlier.

I want to briefly draw the Committee's attention to one concern that our analysis of the Bill has given rise to. This is Part 2 of schedule 5 to the Bill, which confers a power on the Secretary of State to amend relevant labour market legislation, including some legislation that applies here. Crucially, the Bill does not contain any provision to require approval from the NI Executive in the event that the Secretary of State should choose to exercise this function. Minister Muir has raised that with the UKG Minister responsible, Justin Madders, and has indicated that he is content to support this LCM, subject to the Bill's being amended to address that issue. The UKG have agreed to amend the Bill to ensure that that power will not be exercisable in the absence of approval from the relevant Northern Ireland Minister. That is not considered a material concern for the LCM going forward at this stage, subject to formal confirmation of the amendment to the Bill being provided, when we will update the Committee.

I turn briefly to consultation. A UKG consultation indicated support for better coordinated enforcement action and pooling of intelligence, benefits relating to recognition of the single brand and stronger links with stakeholders. DAERA also wrote to key stakeholder groups on 20 December 2024 on the proposal to abolish the GLAA. The GLAA and the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) responded. The GLAA indicated full support for the Bill, while the UFU raised two issues, neither of which are considered a material concern for the LCM. Officials are writing to the UFU to clarify and reiterate that there are no anticipated impacts on the ground from the abolition of the GLAA and that the AWB will continue to operate as it does currently.

Finally, on the Minister's indicating his agreement to extending the relevant provisions to NI, he is aware of the importance of legislating on devolved matters in the Assembly. However, he has taken the view that it is sensible to extend the provisions to here, as doing so avoids the need for a separate enforcement body in Northern Ireland, which would require significant time and resources in DAERA and the NI Executive to establish. Furthermore, as indicated in our written briefing, given that establishing a separate enforcement body in Northern Ireland would take considerable time, not agreeing to the LCM would create a gap in important enforcement provision in the intervening period. The proposals are not expected to have direct financial implications. Equality assessments of the abolition of the GLAA indicate that there are no significant negative impacts on equality of opportunity. Also, timing is critical, as an LCM would have to be agreed by the Assembly before the Bill reaches the House of Lords, which is expected to be in April 2025. To that end, it would be helpful for us to reflect this Committee's position to the Minister and subsequently support the Minister for Communities and the Committee for Communities in meeting the challenging time frame. Thank you for your time. I will end there, and we are happy to take any questions,

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): John, do you want to come in?

Mr Blair: I have no questions.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): You said that the GLAA's work will continue here. Until when?

Ms Connery: The work that the GLAA carries out currently will continue. The timescale for developing the Fair Work Agency is up to two years. There are provisions in the Bill that ensure continuity, so the GLAA functions will continue under the Secretary of State until the Fair Work Agency begins to execute the work.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): I am thinking about this from a worker's point of view. In what way will the terms and conditions of an average worker be improved?

Ms Connery: This will not affect the average worker. The Bill is ensuring that the work that the GLAA does will continue, and there are specific benefits associated with the GLAA licensing regime. I can explain some of the detail of how the licensing regime works and the benefits that it brings, if the Committee would find that helpful.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): Yes, if you have anything.

Ms Connery: Certainly. The benefit of the GLAA is that it ensures that all legislative statutory requirements that employment providers must adhere to are, indeed, adhered to. It ensures that other labour providers that are not licensed cannot undercut those, so it really does focus on protecting workers' rights.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): Are there any other issues of concern or interest to DAERA that we should report to the Committee for Communities?

Ms Connery: No. This has been a rapidly moving Bill. We heavily scrutinised the Bill and took legal advice, and we are satisfied. It is like a rebranding, if you like, and there are specific benefits to be realised. From that perspective, we do not have any concerns about the Bill. We think that the creation of the Fair Work Agency and the bringing together of the enforcement functions will bring specific benefits. There will be no impact on workers. This will be a single brand that they will recognise, so, if they have issues with employment rights, rather than having to go to a number of enforcement agencies, there will be a single, recognisable brand.

Mr Blair: I have a quick question, Chair. I know that I had indicated that I was not going to ask a question, so I am contradicting myself. Given that concerns were raised by the UFU — they might be technical and have already been dealt with — it might be helpful if we and the Committee for Communities could be updated on any progress on those so that we know when they have been resolved.

Ms Connery: I will explain the issues raised. The UFU raised three concerns, two of which DAERA is responding to. The third was about statutory sick pay, which we passed to colleagues in DFC to respond to.

The first was a request that any changes as a result of the Bill be introduced gradually to give UFU members time to adjust. The answer was that there will be no change on the ground. As I said, it will be easier for people to seek help when they need it. The second was a concern about the raft of legislation that its members must already comply with and that the Bill represents a further legislative burden. The response to that was similar: no impacts are anticipated, particularly as the Bill introduces consequential and saving provisions to existing legislation.

Mr Blair: That is fair enough, Chair. Thank you.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): Thank you very much for your attendance. As the Committee for Communities is leading on the scrutiny of the LCM and will wish to receive a response from us, are members supportive of the LCM?

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): We will reflect that in our correspondence to the Committee for Communities.

I might not have said this yet, but, Nichola and Richard, thank you very much for coming to engage with the Committee today.

Ms Connery: Thank you.

The Deputy Chairperson (Mr McAleer): Apologies; Robbie would never have done that. [Laughter.]