Labour User Labour Provider Webinar 2 November 2022

Here you will find a recording of the webinar held on 2 November 2022 and associated presentations.

 

A transcript of the recording can be found via the link below and the full text is also at the bottom of this page.

Transcript of LU/LP webinar 2 November 2022

 

Presentations

GLAA application of STROs - Gemma Kirby - Investigating Officer

Seasonal Worker Scheme and Regulation update - Nicola Ray - Head of Regulation

Avara Foods presentation - Bev Bishton, Avara Foods

 

 

Transcript of LU/LP webinar 2 November 2022

 

0:1:52.40 --> 0:2:22.740
Suzanne (Guest)
Good morning. I'm going to start the Labour user and labour provider webinar. I'm delighted that we have so many people are with us today. As you know, we are going to discuss issues that are on the agenda which I think are of interest to all of you were expecting just under 200 people. Hopefully to join the webinar and they are joining at this moment. But while we're doing that, I just need to mention some housekeeping.

0:2:23.250 --> 0:2:55.620
Suzanne (Guest)
First of all, to let you know that the meeting is being recorded and will be shared after the event. Also, if you have questions, we do have a chat function and what we will ask you to do is put your question in the chat. I will in fact tell the agenda presenter for that item. What the question is and they will provide an answer hopefully. But if we're not able to get to your question or the answer isn't available.

0:2:55.740 --> 0:3:2.930
Suzanne (Guest)
At this time, we will come back to you later after the webinar with a response.

0:3:4.80 --> 0:3:32.930
Suzanne (Guest)
We do ask that you only ask your question once. Multiple questions on the same theme are helpful, but it's not easy for other people then to get into the chat as such. Also, I'd like to mention about the feedback survey that we have. We will ask you if you could please complete our survey as we really do appreciate feedback. It's a very short survey. It helps us to understand.

0:3:33.100 --> 0:4:3.390
Suzanne (Guest)
Our impact and improve our training and events such as this webinar, the survey link will be added to the chat and I will remind you about completing the feedback survey at the end of the webinar. So thank you all for coming. As I say, we now have just under 100 people have joined us and we're going to start with the second item on the agenda which is the GLAA application of the slavery.

0:4:3.470 --> 0:4:30.340
Suzanne (Guest)
Trafficking risk orders. It's going to be prevented by a Gemma Kirby, who is one of our enforcement officers. So in I understand it will feature a case in Bridgwater and how we used the orders to preventing modern slavery. So Gemma, if you could make yourself visible and take your microphone off mute, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

0:4:31.180 --> 0:4:34.180
Gemma Kirby
Thank you very much, Suzanne. Helen, I just share my screen.

0:4:40.720 --> 0:5:4.240
Gemma Kirby
And so as Suzanne said, I'm an investigating officer in the Southwest region of the UK, mostly covering the five forces in, in the southwest area. And I'm going to give you a short run through of the powers that we have to apply for slavery and trafficking risk orders and concentrating on a case study for an order that I applied for and successfully obtained in February this year.

0:5:8.90 --> 0:5:23.390
Gemma Kirby
Say the GLAA, along with the police, immigration enforcement and the National Crime Agency have powers under part to section 23 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to apply for slavery and trafficking risk orders, otherwise referred to as STROs.

0:5:24.110 --> 0:5:50.360
Gemma Kirby
And we have to satisfy the court that the respondent has acted in a way which may mean that there is a risk they will commit a slavery or human trafficking offence and the order is necessary to protect persons from the physical or psychological harm which would be likely to occur if the respondent committed such an offense and the beauty of STROs is that the offense doesn't have to have occurred. So we do not have to have that level of proof that we would do to go through a criminal prosecution.

0:5:51.90 --> 0:6:11.360
Gemma Kirby
The application is made in Magistrates Court, so it's a civil hearing. We can therefore use hearsay. We don't need to have everything produced into a statement, form or other form of evidence, and it also means that the criminal procedure and Investigations Act cpia doesn't apply, so we don't have to follow the usual disclosure rules that we would have to going through a criminal prosecution.

0:6:12.300 --> 0:6:22.450
Gemma Kirby
And do you orders can be effective for at least two years and if that order is breached in any way, shape or form, there's up to five years available for sentencing.

0:6:24.380 --> 0:6:42.290
Gemma Kirby
So the conditions of the stray must be prohibitive, and the respondent can be stopped from doing certain things, and we can also put requirements into the stray for individuals to supply their name and address changes to us, and so that we can keep track of where an individual may be within the country or certainly elsewhere within the world.

0:6:43.70 --> 0:6:55.460
Gemma Kirby
And the prohibitions placed on the respondent must be deemed necessary to protect persons from harm. There are also no borders on orders, so the prohibitions can apply internationally as well as in the UK.

0:6:56.330 --> 0:7:26.200
Gemma Kirby
We have to give consideration as to the aims of the prohibitions and how they can be monitored and managed. It's up to each individual agency who is applied for the the stray to monitor that stray and therefore we seek to put prohibitions and into the stray that we will it be able to enforce ourselves, but some of the prohibitions, as you'll see later on, can also be monitored and enforced by partner agencies. The details of the stray, including those prohibitions, can be released into the public domain and therefore.

0:7:26.300 --> 0:7:38.210
Gemma Kirby
We shared far and wide and publicized within the media, so they are a really good preventative tool in that respect and and as I said earlier, there's up to five years in prison for failing to comply with any of the prohibitions in that order.

0:7:40.750 --> 0:7:57.680
Gemma Kirby
Say the case in going to talk about relates to Iranian male by the name of Catalin Gergely, and he was operating in the Bridgewater area and from at least 2018. Having looked at an extensive financial records I used for the stream application.

0:7:58.520 --> 0:8:6.110
Gemma Kirby
Say that GLAA were contacted by a relative of the victims in this case via e-mail in late March 2021.

0:8:6.950 --> 0:8:19.880
Gemma Kirby
And through that e-mail, we were able to identify where these individuals were working and three suckling inquiries with that labour user we were able to identify a couple of the victims named within this e-mail.

0:8:20.740 --> 0:8:49.510
Gemma Kirby
I met two of these victims in Bridgewater and we discussed various options with them and they refused to go into the national referral mechanism, which is quite common for the victims that we deal with in the GLAA, and instead I was able to make a food bank referral the information that they've given me essentially said that this individual had taken all of their wages away from them at the end of each week when they received them and they were living on about £10 a week.

0:8:49.600 --> 0:8:55.880
Gemma Kirby
And they wanted to to remain to pay off this debt initially and hence the food bank referral that I made for them.

0:8:57.160 --> 0:9:10.920
Gemma Kirby
The following week, five victims came forward and said that they wanted to be relocated away from the location and wanted to try and assist with them. An investigation I was able to relocate these individuals.

0:9:12.310 --> 0:9:17.840
Gemma Kirby
With another labour provider, actually, who kindly offered a jobs and accommodation for those individuals.

0:9:18.810 --> 0:9:48.560
Gemma Kirby
And so Catalin Gergely was advertising jobs in the UK on websites in Romania, and he wasn't licenced by the GLAA to do this, he would offer to arrange travel to the UK if an individual so required and on making contact with Catalan, he would also then reveal that he was able to supply accommodation in the UK and he assisted individuals with finding employment when they arrived in the UK and also provided transport to and from work.

0:9:48.700 --> 0:9:53.30
Gemma Kirby
In fact, all of his victims were placed with the same labour user.

0:9:53.950 --> 0:10:9.940
Gemma Kirby
And he provided loans for food on arrival whilst individuals were waiting for their first wages to be paid to them. And he told survivors that the cost for his services would be £150. Each rent would be £70 a week and transport two and from where it was £30 a week.

0:10:11.220 --> 0:10:27.330
Gemma Kirby
Of the the five victims that came forward and three agreed to provide accounts, three ABC interview and and one consented to be referred into the NRM. Unfortunately, one of those victims completely disengaged and and went to live with family in London.

0:10:28.260 --> 0:10:40.60
Gemma Kirby
And unfortunately, Gergely managed to leave the UK prior to being arrested by the GLAA, but that didn't stop us pursuing him and and continuing with the investigation.

0:10:45.10 --> 0:10:55.720
Gemma Kirby
Say the the comments at the top of these slides are those that were made by survivors. In this case, and and things that they said to me throughout the time of my investigation.

0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:15.50
Gemma Kirby
And one of the things that Catalin Gergely was doing was giving different addresses for victims to put on their application forms when they signed up with the the recruitment agency. And this made it very difficult for the recruitment agency concerned to kind of identify that there were lots of victims living in the same addresses within the Bridgewater area.

0:11:16.300 --> 0:11:45.210
Gemma Kirby
And once individuals came to the UK, that £150 fee that they've been told that they would owe for the services of Catalin suddenly increased to 1500 pounds. And and they're in started their debt ******* and they were escorted to the bank on a weekly basis when their wages were paid and forced to hand over the majority of what they earn each week. And this was around 3 to 400 pounds, depending on how many hours those individuals have been working.

0:11:46.220 --> 0:12:17.230
Gemma Kirby
This meant that they will see, then had to ask Catalin for loans for food and to sustain them throughout the week. The accommodation that he provided was overcrowded in poor condition and informally tied to the work that was being carried out. So although he wasn't their employer, if you spoke to some of those workers and indeed I had intelligence from hospital visits by other people, that would say he was there employer and if they weren't working then that accommodation was gone that wasn't available to them any longer.

0:12:17.970 --> 0:12:32.780
Gemma Kirby
And they didn't have any tenancy agreements or anything in place that meant that they could remain in that accommodation with the landlord. The vehicles that were being used to travel to and from work are in poor condition and there was no insurance on many of these vehicles as well.

0:12:34.50 --> 0:12:46.990
Gemma Kirby
One couple who did come on board with the investigation said that they paid an estimated 5000 pounds due to the interest it was placed on these loans over the four month period that they were with Gergely.

0:12:51.180 --> 0:12:51.690
Gemma Kirby
So.

0:12:52.690 --> 0:13:8.50
Gemma Kirby
Most of my investigation centred around uh, gurgles, finances and it became evident from his financial records that he had not worked for four years and this was evidenced by a statement from HMRC. When I put the store application forward.

0:13:8.710 --> 0:13:35.50
Gemma Kirby
And in stark contrast to his victims, who were having to use food banks and scratching around to be able to afford to buy feed and Gergely was managing to pay his own rent. He drove around in a Range Rover that he owned. He had gym membership, Netflix subscriptions, a really awful Costa Coffee habit, spent hundreds of pounds on trainers, clothes and takeaways. So his lifestyle was very starkly contrasted to that of his victims.

0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:45.10
Gemma Kirby
And I was able to identify that he was involved with four different properties in Bridgewater and he was operating as an unofficial.

0:13:45.870 --> 0:14:15.260
Gemma Kirby
Letting agent for those landlords and the landlord thought it was great because they didn't have to pay him a penny. Yet he was sourcing people to live in their properties, collecting rent for them, sorting out any issues that might arise within the house, and he was doing this without being paid by them. He was ensuring that rent was paid for those properties, and at the end of each month from his financial records he was making on average £4000 a month from from his business and therefore from his victims.

0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:46.530
Gemma Kirby
And I was able to put into the application here say evidence from the local authority housing officers who had had complaints about MSB and overcrowding at lots of these properties and also details from the four landlords as to how they came about using Catalin Gergely as this unofficial letting agent. As it happens, lots of these landlords, we're in agreement that although they weren't wholly aware of what was happening at those properties, they did kind of realize that it was too good to be true, that he would be.

0:14:46.620 --> 0:14:55.570
Gemma Kirby
Doing all of this for them, for no personal gain to himself and and therefore kind of accepted that he would be overcharging people and to make some money for himself.

0:14:57.90 --> 0:15:26.150
Gemma Kirby
And we were also able to put into the application redacted intelligence from Avon and Somerset Police about workers going to hospital, being accompanied by Gergely, and also discloses that they'd made whilst in hospital about him being there employer and also sourcing accommodation for them. I had quite a lot of other evidence such as telephone work that I'd done and also anpr evidence for vehicles that I didn't actually include in the store application. So the beauty of this is that you can pick and choose.

0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:43.770
Gemma Kirby
The the respondent in this case, Catalin Gergely, has sight of everything that would be put before court, so I had to be quite picky and cheesy about what it was that I would put forward, because I still hopefully intend to try and prosecute this individual. So I don't want to let him know everything that I have on him.

0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:58.810
Gemma Kirby
Say the prayer editions that were placed on Catalin Gergely were that he was prevented from arranging or paying for anyone's travel into or out of the UK, prevented from arranging travel or transport of anyone to and from work.

0:15:59.410 --> 0:16:31.0
Gemma Kirby
I'm not arranging or assisting anyone's work or assisting them in finding employment and preventing him from procuring, coercing or instructing anyone to rent or sublet any property or rooms controlled by them or any other accommodation which is owned, controlled or rented by them, and that is in place for five years, and that's stray appears on the police national computer. So if any law enforcement agency were to check him, it would appear against his name. It's been shared with a whole host of other agencies such as Border Force, Immigration Enforcement.

0:16:31.290 --> 0:16:52.480
Gemma Kirby
UK visas and Immigration local authority that was involved in the investigation, the police and also with the Romanian authorities because some of these things are would be applicable over in Romania and outside of the UK and if he is found to be breaching that, then we can try and look at and bringing him before UK court as they there will be some complexity around doing that.

0:16:54.110 --> 0:17:18.740
Gemma Kirby
It was also publicized in the media and actually the benefit of having done that is I've later received information that Mr Gergely was refused a cryptocurrency account due to open source inquiries that the the Financial Institute had done on him. So it has a file wide-ranging impact on Gergely and his ability to carry out his MO.

0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:50.170
Gemma Kirby
And the information is also been shared with all of those landlords that were involved and publicised through the local authorities, landlords, newsletters, in order to try and raise awareness of how the properties were used so that hopefully more landlords in the future can try and spot and report the signs of potential modern slavery to us, the police and the local authority. It also highlighted to me that there were some issues around individuals who were being paid with one pay cards and other similar.

0:17:50.270 --> 0:18:12.730
Gemma Kirby
I'm forms of workers being paid in that they thought that they had to be able to pay everything in cash. However, working with one pay, we have now understood that individuals can contact one pay and pay their rent in direct debit for example, and that kind of takes away one of those avenues for people to be exploited through that handing over of cash, et cetera.

0:18:15.510 --> 0:18:40.450
Gemma Kirby
The GLAA is actually got almost 20 STROs I think across a whole range of different sectors and some of these prohibitions that we can put on could be, for example, with car washes. And we can say that an individual has to allow us access to their property to come on and speak to workers, and that is a power that we wouldn't have ordinarily. And is it putting that into the stream is really useful for us. Excuse me.

0:18:41.210 --> 0:19:4.70
Gemma Kirby
And STROs are really effective as preventative tools and this create here is taken from a paper that was written in 2021 and concerning a public health approach to modern slavery because we only need to show the risk to individuals and not proved at the slavery and trafficking has occurred, it's a lot lower burden of proof for us as investigators.

0:19:5.230 --> 0:19:35.260
Gemma Kirby
And we can use STROs to address conditions that would enable exploitation and therefore reduce the likelihood of risk or harm to individuals. It can be used as an early intervention tool so we can apply for these early on in an investigation. We don't have to wait until the point at which we think we've got enough to charge and they can be used all different levels of prevention, whether that means addressing the drivers or the underlying causes of modern slavery or further on down the line when exploitation does start to happen.

0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:45.820
Gemma Kirby
So there were really good disruptive tool and also a deterrent tool. And so if anyone's got any questions in relation to STROs and quite happy to answer those.

0:19:46.620 --> 0:20:16.840
Suzanne (Guest)
Gemma, I'm thank you very much. It was an absolutely fascinating presentation. I do have some questions, but I'm not gonna put all of them to you because we don't have that much time and we have other agendas. The first though, I just would like Katherine, if you could answer this. Will people be able to receive copies of the presentations if you could put an answer to that in the chat, that would be really helpful. But we do have some other questions for you. Gemma themselves one isn't Joanne Young about how do you determine?

0:20:17.50 --> 0:20:20.620
Suzanne (Guest)
Which alternative labour provider to place workers with?

0:20:21.820 --> 0:20:22.570
Gemma Kirby
That was actually.

0:20:23.750 --> 0:20:53.980
Gemma Kirby
As in, say, quite difficult, but also quite easy because these individuals they're accommodation was tied to their work informally and and therefore by moving them from that accommodation they were essentially homeless. So in these sorts of cases, we could look to the local authority to try and assist with housing, or we could try and obtain consent from individuals for them to go into the national referral mechanism and obtain accommodation through the victim care contract.

0:20:54.220 --> 0:21:15.790
Gemma Kirby
And however, in this instance, those individuals would have been seen as making themselves homeless. They weren't identifying at that moment in time as being victims of modern slavery, and were refusing to go into the national referral mechanism. And so in order to safeguard them, I was kind of in a bit of a tight spot where I had to find them alternative accommodation.

0:21:16.270 --> 0:21:47.580
Gemma Kirby
And these particular workers, like many of our workers that we see in the GLAA licence sector, are here to earn money. And that was one of the main things that they were refusing to go into the NRM four, they needed to earn that money to send back to relatives, children back at home. And so therefore I had to look for a labour provider who could give me jobs and accommodation for individuals and not a lot of our labour providers provide accommodation and to kind of really narrowed down where I could take those workers.

0:21:48.130 --> 0:21:48.600
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you.

0:21:47.830 --> 0:21:54.480
Gemma Kirby
And and actually kindly the the labour provider did a really good job of looking after these workers for us on very grateful to them.

0:21:55.170 --> 0:22:2.220
Suzanne (Guest)
We have another question from Joanne Young saying are there any statistics on how often the STRO's are breached?

0:22:3.130 --> 0:22:8.660
Gemma Kirby
Pretty good question and I can't honestly answer that. The STROs that I mean.

0:22:9.450 --> 0:22:27.720
Gemma Kirby
Lots of different agencies, like I said at the beginning, can apply for STROs, so I don't know what individual statistics are for those as far as I'm aware, in the GLAA we haven't had any breaches reported in relation to our STROs that we have obtained. But yeah, I I don't know off the top of my head, I'll be honest.

0:22:27.890 --> 0:22:53.380
Suzanne (Guest)
OK. And the last point is actually not so much a question, but it is a comment that may be helpful. It's from Ryan Young and he says he represents a recruitment agency and he said didn't the agency ask for bank statements showing confirmation of address for these candidates, they should have picked up the candidates all lived at the same address. We always ask for a statement dated within the last three months showing name, address and bank details.

0:22:54.280 --> 0:23:14.520
Gemma Kirby
And so in this instance, these people were arriving in the the country without a bank account. So the bank account was set up for them by the recruitment agency, and those cars were delivered to the recruitment agency on site where they were working and handed out to workers there. And therefore, we didn't have that on their records.

0:23:14.980 --> 0:23:42.800
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Gemma. I'm going to move on now. I thank you so much. Uh, excuse me. Catherine has put into the chat that presenters our happy to share that presentation and there will be published on the Gil website and we'll share the webinar recording. So now we're moving on to the next agenda item which has Nicola Ray, the head of regulation for the GLAA, which is on the seasonal workers pilot. Nicola.

0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:49.240
Nicola Ray
Thank you. I'll just share the presentation just one second.

0:23:54.700 --> 0:23:56.390
Nicola Ray
OK, let me just.

0:23:57.140 --> 0:24:1.320
Nicola Ray
It's not gone back to the beginning. Let me just go back to the beginning from a presentation.

0:24:2.830 --> 0:24:3.160
Nicola Ray
OK.

0:24:15.50 --> 0:24:15.470
Nicola Ray
Like 2.

0:24:16.940 --> 0:24:19.640
Nicola Ray
Get it right from the beginning. That's helpful, isn't it?

0:24:26.270 --> 0:24:27.340
Nicola Ray
OK, right.

0:24:28.380 --> 0:24:59.230
Nicola Ray
For those of you who don't know me, I am Nicola Ray. I am the head of regulation at the GLAA, which means that I have the responsibility for delivery of the licensing scheme. Most people will know because I've actually been at GLAA for quite some time now. But for those of you don't, that's my responsibility. I'm gonna talk to you today a bit about the seasonal workers scheme and how it impacts on GLAA activity because it's been a lot of interest in this scheme in the press and a lot of quite serious allegations that have been made.

0:24:59.320 --> 0:25:8.290
Nicola Ray
I thought we would be useful to talk about some of the context around the scheme and how it interacts with the licensing scheme and just to talk you through some of the things that we have been doing.

0:25:9.850 --> 0:25:39.820
Nicola Ray
So for those of you that not really familiar with the scheme, because not everyone is as as familiar as we are, and basically the scheme works, it's designed to provide a work and it's a formal visa route to provide workers for the edible horticultural sector. And obviously, as those of you that are familiar with it, it's also now been extended to include poultry as we move in towards the Christmas period. So it's primarily was introduced to provide that Visa route to bring workers into the UK.

0:25:40.340 --> 0:25:57.700
Nicola Ray
Workers obviously can be sourced from any part of the world. The the scheme doesn't restrict where people come from, but obviously previously prior to the war, obviously in Ukraine significant numbers did come from the Ukraine. Obviously that has had an impact on the scheme this year and where workers are being sourced from.

0:25:58.810 --> 0:26:18.620
Nicola Ray
The four operators of the scheme, who are the sponsors for the visa source, the workers and place them with the growers or farmers and as part of the scheme they have an ongoing responsibility for their for the worker welfare and making sure that those workers have a safe place to work and a meeting, the basic requirements of this scheme.

0:26:19.60 --> 0:26:33.610
Nicola Ray
Umm. As anyone on their understands, the licensing scheme would know not only to the operators themselves need to have a GLAA licence, but also anyone in the subcontracting chain of supply will also need a GLAA licence.

0:26:34.10 --> 0:26:57.360
Nicola Ray
And just for a little bit of clarity, we in the GLAA take quite a wide meaning in terms of the word supply. So effectively anyone who is involved in that process of sourcing those workers is actually required to have a licence. And so obviously that's had quite a different impact for us in terms of the types of applications that we're getting at the moment for applications that we've had over the last year.

0:26:59.340 --> 0:27:31.670
Nicola Ray
So the GLAA is not the lead agency of the scheme. I think there's been a bit of confusion about this. I think everyone thinks the scheme is a scheme that we run or we'll heavily involved in. We do have an interest in this scheme because obviously of the aspect of licensing, but we don't have any control over the scheme. We don't determine which countries workers can come from or how they're sourced, etcetera, other than the licensing scheme, I've put this first bullet point because it's a question that has been asked a couple of times. If we were actually involved in making decisions on who's actually granted operated a status.

0:27:32.50 --> 0:28:2.700
Nicola Ray
No, we don't. That's matters for Defra. Defra run the request for information. They determine who should be given the licence to be an operator alongside colleagues in UKVI. That UK visas and immigration. Our role is to ensure, though, that the businesses that supply the workers are compliant with the licensing standards and anyone who licence holder will understand the licensing standards that they cover. The basic aspects of employment law, making sure that workers are paid correctly, they've got a safe workplace that they're transported safely.

0:28:2.870 --> 0:28:5.640
Nicola Ray
And that the licence holder is fit and proper.

0:28:6.590 --> 0:28:36.700
Nicola Ray
That doesn't mean that we're not interested in allegations. We are interested in allegations of worker exploitation, whether that's from a licence holder or whether it sits beyond that. So in terms of our powers, we can investigate allegations of forced labour, so that could include things like debt bondage, workers paying a work finding fee that occur in the UK, the the more complex aspect is any exploitation that happens outside of the UK's. Our powers are limited to.

0:28:36.780 --> 0:28:43.20
Nicola Ray
England, Wales when we're looking at forced labour, not Scotland and Northern Ireland, we do have a.

0:28:43.720 --> 0:28:47.920
Nicola Ray
A system that where we can flag those up with the relevant authorities in those countries.

0:28:48.540 --> 0:29:20.520
Nicola Ray
If those allegations about worker exploitation indicate that workers are the that have been supplied by a licence holder, have been exploited by the licence holder or someone in the subcontracting chain, if there are subcontractors in the supply chain, then there is activity that we can do in terms of looking at whether the licence should still be in place or whether it needs to be revoked, or if there are other actions that we should take. One of the things that we do is to support UK visas and immigration with visits to farms. So as part of the scheme.

0:29:21.20 --> 0:29:39.770
Nicola Ray
UKVI will go out and do what they call compliance visits, where they check around worker welfare. They look at the site, they'll check what the workers experience has been and make sure that the requirements of this scheme have been met. We often will accompany those visits if we have the resources available to do that.

0:29:42.60 --> 0:29:56.100
Nicola Ray
So this year has been quite a busy year for us in terms of the scheme, the scheme is, you know, obviously expanded this year it was a high number of workers that were coming in and it is quite a concentrated period when the work has come in. So it does.

0:29:56.710 --> 0:30:4.580
Nicola Ray
Become quite a peak activity at certain times of the year, so this year we've processed applications from businesses based overseas.

0:30:5.910 --> 0:30:38.860
Nicola Ray
We have had an A small number in previous years of overseas labour providers, but this year we've seen quite an increase in those numbers and also in the variety of different countries where those labour providers are based. Those applications can take quite a considerable amount of time for us to process and action just do. The fact that we need to have a good understanding of how labor laws operate in the home country and one of the key pieces of work for this year has been working with colleagues in the foreign wealth and Commonwealth Development Office.

0:30:39.180 --> 0:31:7.420
Nicola Ray
To make sure that we have LinkedIn to those relevant embassies in the home countries to make sure that the labour supply is compliant not only with the licensing standards but with the source country as well. Often the sort of rules and regulations in countries are different from ones that we might operate here, although it's really important as well that the standards, the licensing standards are met by the person supplying the workers in the supply chain.

0:31:8.60 --> 0:31:38.930
Nicola Ray
But often as well we've we're having to make those inquiries through the British embassies and then make the links into the government and the source countries as well. So that's been quite a substantial piece of work. And of course as you recognize that means some of those applications will take longer for us to investigate and inspect one of the key pieces of work that's been really important this year is to focus on what we call our prevent activity, making sure that we deal with issues before the work has even come into the UK.

0:31:39.10 --> 0:31:43.30
Nicola Ray
And quite an important piece of work has been a video that Frank.

0:31:44.510 --> 0:32:14.800
Nicola Ray
Who's our head of prevention and partnerships, has worked on with the four operators to help with some of those worker expectations. One of the issues that's come out when we do some of the UKVI visits is workers haven't always had a good appreciation of what it means to work in the UK, how they might be paid, what their accommodation might be look like. And this video that will be launched. I think it's going to be launched for the season next year, really captures a lot of that to help a with the recruitment of workers so they understand what the requirement is.

0:32:15.160 --> 0:32:19.150
Nicola Ray
But also to make sure that we're all clear on what those expectations are.

0:32:20.910 --> 0:32:50.240
Nicola Ray
Umm, we did some meet and greet activity obviously with 30,000 plus works come to UK we can't go and meet and greet every person come to UK. Our resources are quite small but we have done some of that in an informal environment. So when they arrive in the UK we can meet them informally and share what their rights are. So they have a good understanding of what to expect when they come here. And again that's part of our prevent activity so that we can try and put in place those.

0:32:50.430 --> 0:33:21.570
Nicola Ray
Frameworks to ensure that workers aren't exploited so they know who to contact, how to contact people, what what should be happening for their experience. We've also issued a GLAA brief this year, just as a backup to make sure that everyone is clear how licensing applies to businesses outside of the UK. And if you take the presentation at the end of the session, will hyperlink you through to the brief. If you haven't had a chance to look at it, but it does, just set out how licensing does apply to those businesses.

0:33:21.850 --> 0:33:52.540
Nicola Ray
Any business based outside the UK is licenced in the same way as UK businesses that go through the same process, although some of the due diligence work is is more complex and you'll have seen there are there have been a lot of allegations this year that have come through the press and also obviously directly through us through our intelligence team. It's been quite a challenging environment I think because of the the variety of source countries that we've had to get sort of information on and obviously.

0:33:52.650 --> 0:34:9.630
Nicola Ray
So but those countries or countries where work, finding fees are quite legal or where workers are really keen to come and work over here. So that is one of the key areas for us that has really come to the fore is this whole issue around the payment of work finding fees outside of the UK.

0:34:11.440 --> 0:34:21.80
Nicola Ray
And as I said, workers paying those work finding fees in their home country can potentially lead to debt ******* through the payment of those fees.

0:34:22.630 --> 0:34:51.670
Nicola Ray
We've also picked up through some of our visits with UKVI that were are not being paid. At least the national living wage or minimum wage. The scheme itself sets out a requirement that workers should be receiving £10.10 per hour. I don't think that has always been achieved in cases, and sometimes it's considerably below that amount as well, and I know there's some activity to address that. We've also had examples of workers being charged, some quite significant sums for.

0:34:51.860 --> 0:34:53.330
Nicola Ray
Accommodation as well.

0:34:53.990 --> 0:35:7.350
Nicola Ray
Another area that came to the fore with some of the investigative work and some of the partnership work we've been doing with UKVI is that workers haven't been provided without adequate PPE for doing the work that they need to do out in the fields or in a packed house.

0:35:8.80 --> 0:35:18.40
Nicola Ray
And and obviously as I mentioned before, this whole issue around they providers in different parts of the world we've picked up, there's been some unlicenced subcontracting.

0:35:18.710 --> 0:35:33.280
Nicola Ray
It is very challenging for us to investigate stuff that's not occurring here in the UK. It involves as working with law enforcement in those home countries, so this is a very challenging aspect of this scheme for us and in terms of how we do our investigations.

0:35:36.970 --> 0:36:7.260
Nicola Ray
So just really it's summary for us, the most important thing for us in terms of the the seasonal workers scheme is prevention and it is really important that we can actually focus on ensuring that those workers that are coming into the UK have a good understanding what it means to work in the UK. Obviously if they have that information, they're less likely to be exploited because they'll know what the expectation is, they'll know what they should expect to be paid, they'll know what sort of accommodation they might be coming to.

0:36:7.350 --> 0:36:13.770
Nicola Ray
And also it helps them to make that choice as to whether it is the right option for them to come to the UK and do that work.

0:36:14.670 --> 0:36:31.210
Nicola Ray
And and just as a final point, we know that there has been discussion across government that it's likely that the scheme will expand to meet the demand for edible horticulture. And I think the scheme is going to grow over the next 12 months and it's likely that there will be more operators involved in that.

0:36:32.610 --> 0:36:54.280
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Nicola. That was very informative. We do have a question from Richard Thorn. He said he's been informed by contacts, contacts that workers may be being used from the source scheme to supply into food pack houses that are outside of edible horticulture and poultry. How would the GLAA manage such a situation?

0:36:55.330 --> 0:37:14.950
Nicola Ray
Yeah, I've had some allegations as well quite recently to say that some workers have or being asked to go and find workouts where unfortunately it's outside of the scheme as my understanding is that they cannot work other than within the confines of the scheme. It's that is a requirement of the visa that the only work with the scheme.

0:37:15.670 --> 0:37:27.870
Nicola Ray
If you've got any information I would say please pass it through to us through intelligence intelligence@gla.gov.uk I think probably got the wrong way around, so I'll make sure I put it in the chat in a minute because I was get it wrong.

0:37:28.390 --> 0:37:50.150
Nicola Ray
And and we can make sure that information is fed through to UKVI, who will then go and have a look into that because they have the obviously the key responsibility. With it being a visa route to make sure that the requirements of the visa. Thanks Catherine, are being met, but no, those workers really should only be doing work that is covered by the scheme. They're not entitled to go and do other types of work.

0:37:57.230 --> 0:37:57.480
Nicola Ray
Who?

0:37:51.550 --> 0:38:12.770
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Nicola. At this moment, we don't have any other question. Oh, yes, we do come just at the end, Sarah, for Annan ran. I've I pronounced that right. Bow paran. Sorry. Can Ukrainian workers who have been employed via the source scheme apply for other employment refugee routes?

0:38:13.740 --> 0:38:28.780
Nicola Ray
I think the answer is yes. I'm not an expert on Ukrainian workers because they are slightly different from other, but I will find the answer for you and put it in the chat. There is a link to some information for you Ukrainian workers. I think the answer is yes, but I don't wanna say 100%.

0:38:30.860 --> 0:38:31.510
Nicola Ray
Ah yes.

0:38:43.100 --> 0:38:43.410
Nicola Ray
Yeah.

0:38:44.480 --> 0:38:44.910
Nicola Ray
Thank you.

0:38:29.550 --> 0:38:54.430
Suzanne (Guest)
And we've got an answer from someone who know who said that they can, but they need to apply for a BRP and Sarah very grateful to everyone. I'm going to and James have confirmed that by Ukrainian extension scheme, I'm gonna move on now. We got Martin Jones. GLAA senior compliance officer is going to talk about 8 thematic review and compliance Inspections Martin.

0:38:58.290 --> 0:38:59.940
Suzanne (Guest)
Are you with me? Martin, that's you are.

0:39:2.200 --> 0:39:2.850
Suzanne (Guest)
I know.

0:38:59.790 --> 0:39:3.40
Martin Jones
Yes, yes, just remembering all this technology malarkey. I'm getting old.

0:39:5.820 --> 0:39:13.840
Martin Jones
Good morning everybody. Hope what we're all well and is really, really exciting to see everybody that's here today. It's good numbers and and really, really good.

0:39:14.380 --> 0:39:27.70
Martin Jones
I'm I'm the senior compliance officer, one of the senior compliance officers on the compliance team, which forms part of the regulation team, which Nicholas is in charge of. So we work very closely with licensing.

0:39:28.170 --> 0:39:57.610
Martin Jones
The GLAA that while ago introduced the compliance strategy, and from that we looked at developing how a new process normally thematic expect in thematic inspections, to focus on improving the use of our resources in the compliance team and the delivery of our work. Basically our team is made-up of 12 operational investigating officers and our remit. It covers the whole of the UK. We now have a.

0:39:57.800 --> 0:40:8.0
Martin Jones
Two more additional new starters were not going training. It's hoped by about December, January time they'll be undertaking their own workloads, but currently at the moment they're not. They're still under training.

0:40:9.530 --> 0:40:31.330
Martin Jones
In delivering the thematic inspections, there are some challenges to this and this relates to our resource level and the influx of application inspections that we receive. And since March we've had around 94 application inspections come in across the team and we've had 10CI and 9 total. We've had about 112.

0:40:33.470 --> 0:40:35.160
Martin Jones
Tuscans for the team.

0:40:36.340 --> 0:40:42.260
Martin Jones
Across the 1212 operational officers, the application inspections are making up 80% of our workload with.

0:40:42.980 --> 0:41:12.530
Martin Jones
Sea is currently making up 9%, so the use of the thematic inspection is hopefully gonna help to reduce the time that we are delivering on the the compliance side. A normal compliance inspection is an inspection into the whole of the licensing standards and can take some time in in delivering that where we've looked at the thematic way of doing it is that we're going to address just a particular area of the licensing standards.

0:41:15.620 --> 0:41:16.190
Martin Jones
So.

0:41:17.470 --> 0:41:19.400
Martin Jones
With that, with that model.

0:41:20.920 --> 0:41:42.100
Martin Jones
We will look at it and look at the the areas that we need to cover, so we might look at licensing standards such as the, the, the payment of pay or holiday pay as an example, where we look at other areas as just a sole area that we need to look at. So how do we identify what we're going to do for a thematic expectation well.

0:41:43.90 --> 0:42:1.620
Martin Jones
We'll look at it with from areas regarding, you know, when's the the the business last inspected or have we had a number of strands of information from workers who have complained about a particular area of their work, whether it be pay or withholding pay because they're not had their holiday pay, etcetera.

0:42:3.290 --> 0:42:33.710
Martin Jones
So where we would have a normal inspection, we would go in and conduct the inspection, carry out full inspection here we're going to just target the areas that have been that come about. So part of the inspection, we will still cover the business model and areas along that and we will also cover the fit and proper side of the inspection as well to make sure that everything's alright and we'll also cover the licence records as being sure if there's any changes that need doing or not being told about any things that have happened.

0:42:34.90 --> 0:42:37.20
Martin Jones
That need changing across the that business itself.

0:42:38.710 --> 0:43:4.380
Martin Jones
So if it was a single strand of information, we might deal with that as as a tier one inspection, which in a in a way can be a thematic inspection itself. But we've only deal with the issue. We've talked with the, the the worker concern, if they've given their name and we will talk with the PA and it might be a simple thing about PHP or not receiving a weeks holiday pay or a week's pay because of some issues that have happened.

0:43:6.570 --> 0:43:8.500
Martin Jones
So with the thematic process.

0:43:9.930 --> 0:43:18.980
Martin Jones
We will look at in depth the the issues that have been raised, so if it is withholding pay or holiday pay, for example, we would look through records and look, look all the way through that.

0:43:20.390 --> 0:43:20.970
Martin Jones
And.

0:43:21.830 --> 0:43:25.160
Martin Jones
We will go through that in in fine.

0:43:25.860 --> 0:43:56.170
Martin Jones
Uh detail and will carry out worker interviews and possibly at maybe even a Labour user visit and an inspection of the Labour user as well. Yeah, because there are things that we may identify as we go through this process that the workers have raised various issues, which is just more than the withholding of the pay or the holiday pay, etcetera. If that's the case, we'd move the thematic inspection to a full compliance inspection and therefore it will take a bit longer to complete that and that thematic inspection would have stopped so.

0:43:56.280 --> 0:43:59.330
Martin Jones
The new one will have started moving on from that.

0:44:1.20 --> 0:44:24.250
Martin Jones
So what have the thematic inspection so far identified? Well, what we have identified is there been problems with holiday pay and and PPE deposits and through the process so far we've recovered back for workers around £25,913.00 for over 400 workers as as part of the thematic review that we've done so far.

0:44:25.0 --> 0:44:25.490
Martin Jones
So.

0:44:26.430 --> 0:44:26.880
Martin Jones
We've been.

0:44:27.730 --> 0:44:49.180
Martin Jones
Sort of experimenting with these at the moment and we're going to review the process and look at any things that we need to tweak or whether we need to redevelop the way that we go doing those. The advantage for doing these thematics is that we will reduce the amount of time that we are with the labour provider and even deep the Labour users through the worker interviews.

0:44:50.210 --> 0:45:3.980
Martin Jones
Some of the disadvantages of it are it is that if we do find anything, it's not really disadvantaged, but it just adds the delay if there's more issues from the amount of workers that we intend to to see and issues that they.

0:45:5.60 --> 0:45:25.440
Martin Jones
Relate to us, but they're also delays thing awaiting from paperwork from the PPI's, which we do trace a lot on because it is quite intense and the labour provider does have to produce a lot of more documentation that we would need to look at. And that's just a very, very quick, brief overview of thematic inspections.

0:45:26.500 --> 0:45:45.410
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you very much there Martin. We do have a question from Joanne Young. She says at the GLAA compliance Strategy, 2021 commits that all licence holders will be inspected over the five subsequent years. Is this still the plan or will thematic inspections change that?

0:45:47.880 --> 0:46:17.670
Martin Jones
Hopefully what will happen is, is is. There's still the five year plan, but again that that can be reviewed as as part of our processes as we're going forward because the idea is we need to start delivering and delivering a lot more and we're hoping that our increasing resources will help help on that. So with the two new trainees coming forward and coming through that that will help and reduce the sort of workload across the team and we can develop a lot more time to doing what we need to do. We do get a lot of.

0:46:17.830 --> 0:46:48.760
Martin Jones
Information that comes through from workers that we need to look at and we do still get in enforcement work to to deal with as well as well as where we can assist the UKVI on inspection. So going forward, we're hoping to have this all developed and hopefully fine tune it and that hopefully that fine tune in the review will will accelerate a lot more, but you're right, there are a number of licence holders that have not had an inspection for a long time and we're looking at those as well.

0:46:48.840 --> 0:47:3.670
Martin Jones
It's part of the process to go in and and conduct in compliance inspections, but have done a review of all those who've not been inspected for at least ten years or plus and and that's again on our plan once our fought resources up and running.

0:47:4.350 --> 0:47:26.870
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Martin. There are two questions from David, which I'm going to hold until the next speaker, which is the CEO. Regarding board involvement and in the engagement with the industry. So Martin and I don't have anything further for you as such. So I think we'll switch seamlessly over to an update from the CEO.

0:47:29.300 --> 0:47:30.940
Suzanne (Guest)
So if Alicia can come on.

0:47:32.610 --> 0:47:56.520
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Alicia. I'm going to tell you David's questions so you can fit that into your presentation or your update. If I should call it one is that has the move to thematic inspections been approved by the GLAA board and why has there been no engagement with the industry on the move to thematic inspections? So if you can weave that into your presentation, that would be very helpful.

0:47:56.740 --> 0:48:1.890
Elysia McCaffrey
I will say thank you, Suzanne, and I'll ask Nicola to to join me on some of those points as well.

0:48:19.660 --> 0:48:20.90
Elysia McCaffrey
As me.

0:48:1.210 --> 0:48:30.660
Suzanne (Guest)
Can I just get one other point is that Steve Mercer didn't feel that Martin's response answered Joanne Young's question about is there still the plan to inspect over 5 subsequent years, all licence holders or will be medic inspections change that. So I've in fact we could if you wanted to. We have Nicola at the penultimate item on the agenda, but what might happen is after you make a presentation.

0:48:30.740 --> 0:48:35.710
Suzanne (Guest)
I might ask Nicola to talk about compliance and regulation and we fit that altogether.

0:48:36.420 --> 0:48:47.600
Elysia McCaffrey
Yet of course, no, that's that's fine. I'm happy to come back to some of those points as well. But what I wanted to do this one to see a good morning, everybody. It's, it's really good to see you all here today and good to see so many people here.

0:48:47.860 --> 0:49:20.350
Elysia McCaffrey
And I did. I'm just gonna touch on some bits that we're not covering in other items. So I'm not gonna give a kind of hole overview of everything that's happening in GLAA at the moment. But having looked at the other presentations to stay, I thought there were some bits that I wanted to flag and make sure that you've all got oversight of some various things. So the first is just, I guess, to touch on the current political situation following the appointment of the new Prime Minister and the return of the home tech, who was only not the home tech for a week, but we are working at the moment with the Home Office to understand.

0:49:20.610 --> 0:49:51.460
Elysia McCaffrey
What any new ministerial priorities might be? So I'm I'm sure you will know that we are sponsored by the Home Office for an arms length body of the Home Office. And while we have a very clear set out remit, we're really mindful of of where ministers around and what they're thinking and what policy is evolving within government, particularly around modern slavery and so on. And the last time we looked, our work still comes under the portfolio for the Minister, for safeguarding. And so that's no change to the previous setup and as yet we don't know what new ministerial priorities.

0:49:51.520 --> 0:49:57.580
Elysia McCaffrey
Are likely to be the impact our work, but we I will be happy to share them future forums if it's appropriate to do so.

0:49:57.640 --> 0:50:27.560
Elysia McCaffrey
OK. And I'm not gonna cover much on regulation, he said. Nicola, I'll come on to that and also Sam's gonna be talking about Intel. So what I wanted to do was just touch on one point in this sort of a big organizational piece that we're working on at the moment, which is that we are currently working on a new target operating model for the GLAA, which is probably it sounds a bit fancy and it perhaps is and it's something that I'm sure lots of you have all done within your own organizations. But we're working with our consultancy firm at the moment to make sure that we're set up in the right way to be really efficient.

0:50:27.800 --> 0:50:57.990
Elysia McCaffrey
It will come as no surprise to any of you that have cross government. There's a real kind of pinch around money. Money is really tight and we in the GLAA want to make sure that we're delivering the best possible service that we can for the people that we're here to serve and here to help. So we're doing some work at the moment. Say are we set up in the right way? Are we organized in the right way and that kind of thing. The reason why I flag that is because it's a big piece of work for us and it's important for us at the moment. It also means, you know, Joanne's question before, do we plan on?

0:50:58.70 --> 0:51:0.520
Elysia McCaffrey
Still investigate. Sorry, it's still visiting.

0:51:1.780 --> 0:51:31.840
Elysia McCaffrey
Am inspecting over the next five years and the way that we've said we have, I should apologise slightly. I'm just getting over flu and I'm not quite as sharp as I normally am smart asked my team to come in behind me a little bit on this, but yeah, that that is currently the plan and we're still working on that basis and we we plan to do that and what we want to do is just make sure through this target operating model workers that we're set up to use our resources in the right way to make sure that we achieve all of those things. I did want to highlight as well some of you will be aware of the level one award.

0:51:31.940 --> 0:52:2.640
Elysia McCaffrey
And in workers rights and labour exploitation that we developed in partnership with skills and Education Group A while ago, and I wanted to offer my congratulations today to the prevent team who won a National Industry award for collaboration for this qualification in workers rights. So that's been a really big thing for us recently. The few things that I wanted to flag around enforcement, something you might already be aware of from our big news recently, is that last week the sentencing took place in South Wales for three offenders.

0:52:2.830 --> 0:52:34.430
Elysia McCaffrey
He was found guilty for modern slavery offences and so this has included A5 year imprisonment and a four year imprisonment and a 20 month suspended sentence, which is a really significant outcome for us and we hope since a shot across the bows to anyone who think that they can get away with exploiting individuals and taking their money from them and the couple of other big things that we're thinking about at the moment are around the care sector. This is a really big area of priority for us. We've currently got 24 investigations ongoing in the care sector, which is.

0:52:34.710 --> 0:53:4.520
Elysia McCaffrey
Is quite significant and has been an increase in that area. We've also in the last few months extended some slavery and trafficking risk orders for car washes and Gemma talked extensively about how they work earlier. So good that they are being used really regularly and really making a difference so they are all 10 years slavery and trafficking risk orders, which is quite a long period of time, and we're also investigating several incidents of very high visa.

0:53:4.710 --> 0:53:23.620
Elysia McCaffrey
And work finding fees that are being levied on foreign workers and who are then being brought to the UK for work. So while we we don't have jurisdiction to investigate the levying of fees unless they are by GLA licence holder, but we can have exploitation and carries on into the UK and we've got quite a lot of work and around that at the moment.

0:53:24.600 --> 0:53:41.10
Elysia McCaffrey
And and I think probably everything else, all of our big ticket items are being mentioned in other areas and you can probably tell I'm slightly losing my voice. I'm gonna ask Nicola just to come in on David's points about the thematic inspections. And there are build on what you say Nicola, while I just take a drink, if that's OK.

0:53:44.720 --> 0:53:44.960
Nicola Ray
OK.

0:53:40.130 --> 0:54:11.760
Suzanne (Guest)
OK, Nicola, why don't you cover your item on compliance and regulation? Uh, you know, I think Joanne's question about how the five year plan for inspections, you covered that Alicia. But if you want to add anything to that, Nicola, please do. And then of course, David's two particular questions about the board approving thematic inspections and and no engagement with the industry on the move to thematic inspection. So Nicola, can I ask you why the way we have had congratulations on winning the award?

0:54:12.760 --> 0:54:14.750
Nicola Ray
Yes, and I'd say congratulations too.

0:54:15.230 --> 0:54:21.250
Nicola Ray
And I'll take my presentation 1st and then I'll pick up the questions at the end if that's OK.

0:54:20.560 --> 0:54:22.790
Suzanne (Guest)
OK, there may be more as we go through.

0:54:22.650 --> 0:54:47.680
Nicola Ray
Yeah. So what my presentation is not gonna cover is because obviously we've talked about is is some of the numbers around what we're doing in terms of work. So what I wanted to talk about in terms of our update today was some of the projects that we're working on to put some of the wider context of our regulatory environment that we're working in. And also because I thought they would be of interest to our attendees today because they will impact ultimately on the licensing scheme.

0:54:48.760 --> 0:55:18.710
Nicola Ray
As this is a, there's quite a lot of big ticket items that we're sort of working through at the moment. One of them at the moment is a review of our licensing fees. The licensing fees haven't been reviewed formally in any way since 2009. Obviously, we do look at them as part of our review of our annual reports and accounts each year, but we're doing quite a significant piece of work at the moment looking at where we should be pitching our fees, whether the model that we're using for apportioning fees, in terms of turnover and sector is the right model.

0:55:19.310 --> 0:55:47.800
Nicola Ray
And and how we can meet the treasury requirement of full cost recovery for the licensing scheme. So there's quite a a, a lot of work at the moment looking at how we gather our income, how that is then apportioned. It looks like potentially there'll be some activity coming up shortly on that, but I just thought it was worthwhile letting people know that we all having a quite detailed and look at the fee structure as it is at the moment.

0:55:48.140 --> 0:56:3.940
Nicola Ray
And if that's going to change in the future, obviously I'll let you know and there will be a formal process for that. But at the moment, we're just in those early stages at the moment of looking at fees and a big piece of work that we're doing as well is on what is what I'm calling our licensing guidance project.

0:56:4.900 --> 0:56:37.470
Nicola Ray
I touched on earlier about one of the briefs we've recognised that there are a lot of briefs and lot of information relating to licensing, so we wanted to think about how we presented that information in a way that is accessible not only in terms of where you can find it and how you get hold of it, but also in a way that people can use it more easily to find information that they want. We get a lot of inquiries through our inquiry line just wanting simple information that is actually generally is available on the website. So we wanted to make.

0:56:37.570 --> 0:57:9.360
Nicola Ray
Uh. Information. Easier for people to be able to access from our website, but also to make it easier for us as well to be updating that because sometimes I think it's difficult for people to work out whether the briefs are up to date or whether there's a different one and things have moved. So we're doing a big piece of work at that at the moment in the background, which eventually will link into a piece of work that the comms team are doing around updating the website for the organization and also linking into efficiency in our processes.

0:57:9.920 --> 0:57:39.470
Nicola Ray
We've have a project, particularly at the moment that's focused on our compliance team, but it will also extend as well to the licensing team around looking for efficiencies in our process. LinkedIn obviously to the workaround fees linked into the big project as well that Alicia mentioned called the target operating model. We're looking at how we can really improve the way that we deliver our licensing scheme. We recognize that it you know we should be able to deliver more and we should be able to do it faster, which links into some of the comments that.

0:57:39.550 --> 0:58:11.880
Nicola Ray
Martin was making in response to some of the questions. It's an ongoing program for us, obviously continues to prevent. We don't stop, but there are some things that you may have already spotted. If any of those of you that have made applications recently, we've got some different letters going out with applicants. We are looking at the information that we applied to applicants. We're also looking at how we can speed up inspection reports in terms of writing them and ultimately also to get those decisions out to people. And we have had some new inspectors and we've also have some new licensing officers in the team.

0:58:11.960 --> 0:58:42.330
Nicola Ray
So there's been a really big focus over the last three to four months around their training and making sure that they're fully equipped to carry out their roles, which has helped us as well to think about the training that we can offer in terms internally. Obviously for our colleagues and staff, I think can't remember where the Martin mentioned this, but we haven't actually had to recruit a compliance officer, I think since about 2009. So you can see that those compliance officers have been a page long time. So to have some new ones that's been quite challenging.

0:58:42.420 --> 0:59:8.690
Nicola Ray
Thinking about what information they'll need, how we can deliver that information for them and obviously to make sure that they're competent when they go out and do that inspection work. And then another big project for us has been working very closely in partnership with HMRC for those of you that were on the webinar few weeks ago with one of our inspectors, Jeff Tompkins, and with Martin as well talking about umbrella companies.

0:59:9.650 --> 0:59:43.110
Nicola Ray
A piece of work that's flowed from that work or mini umbrellas, but also any umbrella business, is looking at the impact on that. And one of the actions that HMRC will take with only fraudulent activities, obviously to deregister businesses for that. And so we've been working together on a project over the last month or so looking at whether there are licence holders who've been deregistered for that and looking at what impact that might have on their licence. Ultimately there's a risk for those businesses that their licence will be revoked. So that's been a really interesting piece of work.

0:59:45.520 --> 0:59:49.740
Nicola Ray
Right. I'll stop sharing that and then I'll come to the questions.

0:59:50.650 --> 0:59:51.320
Nicola Ray
OK.

0:59:58.20 --> 0:59:58.800
Nicola Ray
Just give me a minute.

0:59:59.950 --> 1:0:1.150
Elysia McCaffrey
Suzanne, you're on mute.

1:0:1.280 --> 1:0:3.550
Nicola Ray
I was gonna say, Suzanne, you're on mute. I can.

1:0:5.470 --> 1:0:6.820
Nicola Ray
Thank you. Thank you.

1:0:9.570 --> 1:0:9.920
Nicola Ray
Yeah.

1:0:13.750 --> 1:0:14.320
Nicola Ray
Yeah.

1:0:16.890 --> 1:0:17.180
Nicola Ray
Yeah.

1:0:3.860 --> 1:0:17.920
Suzanne (Guest)
And not now. You can hear me. I know. If you want to add anything to Joanne Young's question about licence holders or being inspected over the five subsequent years and how thematic impacts on that or change it at all.

1:0:18.270 --> 1:0:44.500
Nicola Ray
Yeah. OK. So when we set out the compliance strategy, we recognize that we needed to do more compliance activity in terms of how we balance as well our activity against applications and the number of applications over the last couple of years has gone up. Interestingly from usually we average about 250. We've now gone up to this year alone 219 and I think it is in the year is not over yet.

1:0:46.410 --> 1:1:16.540
Nicola Ray
What we want to do, though, is obviously, as Martin said, free up some of our resources to do much more compliance activity. One of the things though that we really needed to do as well was get a good handle on what's actually happening in the sector and we wanted to do that by trying to address some of the more pressing concerns that seem to be coming to the fore. And as Martin mentioned, a big one as well. If the sector is things like holiday pay, et cetera. So we've been doing some the matter reviews to allow us to actually get out into the sector and see what's going on.

1:1:16.990 --> 1:1:49.700
Nicola Ray
We're also still doing normal compliance inspection work, so any allegations that might give rise to inspection are still going on. So we're not specifically changing our approach, but we are using thematic inspection as one way of getting a handle on what's happening in the sector, but also to make sure that we're getting out to as many businesses and starting to make those contacts in those businesses to check compliance. And it's really important as well. We do those thematic inspections that if we discover that there is something wrong with the business that we will actually then do a full compliance inspection.

1:1:50.70 --> 1:2:4.910
Nicola Ray
But enables us to gather information really about businesses and build our intelligence picture. I know Sam will talk a probably a bit about this later on, but it it really informs what happens in terms of our strategic assessment and helps us to to target the right areas.

1:2:5.350 --> 1:2:37.120
Nicola Ray
And the I think your question, David, about has it been approved by the GLAA board, it was always part of our strategy that we would do some thematic work and would target some specific standards. We don't do that in every case, but we are using it as a tool at the moment, just to see what we can find in the sector. And so it is already in the strategy, but it doesn't mean that we won't be doing compliance inspections and we have done compliance inspections this year. We also as I've just mentioned, we'll deal with any allegations where we need to go and do a full.

1:2:37.410 --> 1:2:39.340
Nicola Ray
Compliance inspection as well.

1:2:39.830 --> 1:2:47.390
Suzanne (Guest)
He also asked about whether or not there's been any, why there has been no engagement with the industry on the move to thematic infections.

1:2:47.760 --> 1:2:51.390
Nicola Ray
And it was always in the strategies. We picked it up when we did the original.

1:2:52.530 --> 1:3:12.370
Nicola Ray
Consultation on the strategy back in 2020, I'm trying to remember the times losing track of the years. Now in 2020, we did actually pick up that and it should be in the strategy. It mentions about doing some thematic work, but we think it's a really useful tool for us in terms of assessing regulation within the sector and checking the compliance work.

1:3:13.60 --> 1:3:22.430
Suzanne (Guest)
And we've had one from Tania Cummins, which I think I'll bring in now, which is the inspection for a change of principal authority. Does that count as a compliance inspection?

1:3:23.370 --> 1:3:49.650
Nicola Ray
Umm, it depends so some changes of principal authority we might do without doing inspection some of them if we go out and do an inspection, it does count as a compliance inspection. It really depends what information we might have about that change of PA what's been happening in the business, whether they've been inspected more recently. But yes, and they'll often the inspector will come out and do more of a check of the business as well. When they do that change of PA.

1:3:50.100 --> 1:3:59.370
Suzanne (Guest)
There's also a question from Saint Raphael's Academy. Is there any model worker Finder agreement for the agencies outside the UK?

1:4:1.420 --> 1:4:2.940
Nicola Ray
No, not on our website.

1:4:4.500 --> 1:4:27.790
Nicola Ray
I know that some of the trade associations will have a I'm assuming you're talking about contracts for supply between the different businesses. No, it's not something that we generally offer, which is a model agreement, but some of the trade associations that cover labour provision will probably be able to provide some good examples of that if that was something that you were interested in, I'm sure.

1:4:28.870 --> 1:4:38.910
Suzanne (Guest)
Umm, those are all the questions at the moment, so I'll go back to the agenda now. I don't know if Alicia wants to come in at all or if I shall move on to agenda item 6.

1:4:39.880 --> 1:4:41.360
Suzanne (Guest)
Nisha there anything else you want to?

1:4:41.160 --> 1:4:44.90
Elysia McCaffrey
No thanks though Nicola covered that very well. Thank you.

1:4:43.670 --> 1:5:13.260
Suzanne (Guest)
OK, we'll get better soon as they say. UM, right. Well, we'll go on to item 6, which is the GLAA conviction reported by a Labour user. And I have Bev Bishton and who's gonna present. And I know the Cath. Florence is already with us and they're from avara foods. And this was about how a Labour user worked with the GLAA with regards to forced labour offences. And there was a sentencing on the 1st or there will be and I hopefully it has happened.

1:5:13.600 --> 1:5:17.870
Suzanne (Guest)
On the 1st of November, so Bev, can I hand this over to you?

1:5:18.690 --> 1:5:19.970
Bev Bishton
I think you, Suzanne.

1:5:21.430 --> 1:5:32.680
Bev Bishton
Yes, I'm Andy Davies and Laura Thomas asked if I'd share our experience of a recent case that went to court and Elysia has just sort of referenced that so.

1:5:34.700 --> 1:5:58.160
Bev Bishton
If some of you on the call, I know already know me. I'm Bev Bishton, head of HR for avara foods. And I have a lead on human rights and ethics, and Kath Florence has joined the call in support. So may be able to take some of the questions at the end. And Kath is a senior HR officer at our Abergavenny site.

1:5:59.50 --> 1:6:1.60
Bev Bishton
I'm not gonna be able to cover everything today.

1:6:3.50 --> 1:6:33.380
Bev Bishton
And the Abergavenny site, whilst I didn't manage and don't manage the Abergavenny site, it is a site that I'm fairly, you know, very familiar with. And at the the end, Frank Hanson will also be available for questions to cover off more detailed part of the investigation that that Laura covered. But I thought I'd just let you know for those that don't who have our foods is well we're a joint venture that came together.

1:6:33.790 --> 1:6:35.610
Bev Bishton
In 2018.

1:6:37.40 --> 1:6:43.240
Bev Bishton
And it's really a joint venture of Cargill Meats Europe and for sender foods.

1:6:44.40 --> 1:7:5.170
Bev Bishton
And we have been operating in the poultry sector and for sender have operated in chicken, Turkey and Duck, Cargill in the chicken sort of sector, but avara foods came together with chicken, Turkey and duck. We no longer do duck. So we're just really a chicken and Turkey operation.

1:7:6.200 --> 1:7:8.120
Bev Bishton
And where are we in the UK?

1:7:8.890 --> 1:7:18.220
Bev Bishton
So we've got a fully integrated UK supply chain and the sort of orange blobs across the country indicate our nine processing sites.

1:7:18.920 --> 1:7:22.910
Bev Bishton
Other the pink blobs are our seven hatcheries.

1:7:23.590 --> 1:7:28.660
Bev Bishton
And we have 3 blue dots which are our mills, our feed mills.

1:7:29.420 --> 1:7:58.620
Bev Bishton
And we have a number of farms for breeders and broilers across the country around 300. Some are company owned and some are contract farmers, which have long, longer stamp established farming partnerships. We employ 6500 colleagues and about 11% agency and that is up. So we're not a big agency user in comparison to some of our competitors.

1:7:59.710 --> 1:8:9.410
Bev Bishton
So the case that Alyssa referred to earlier was the three convicted convicted of modern slavery offences relating to poultry.

1:8:10.240 --> 1:8:17.730
Bev Bishton
And to just give you a bit of background, I received a call from the head of HR for our Turkey business at the time.

1:8:19.290 --> 1:8:31.490
Bev Bishton
Followed up by an e-mail back in October 2018 where a concern had initially been raised from a production colleague to HR in July 2018.

1:8:32.200 --> 1:8:36.400
Bev Bishton
About an agency worker about to move on to permanent status.

1:8:37.880 --> 1:8:55.930
Bev Bishton
It was flagged to the GLAA, who attended site to interview the colleagues, raising the concerns and GLAA commenced the investigation, working with the agency provider who initially supplied the worker and with Cath from our HR team at our givanni.

1:8:57.470 --> 1:9:7.840
Bev Bishton
Fellow colleagues were reluctant to engage, but the GLAA continued with this investigation as they had also had another potential modern slavery link.

1:9:9.400 --> 1:9:31.390
Bev Bishton
HR looked out for the worker and remained in regular contact with the GLAA, who advised us on the 3rd of October 2018 that there were close to an arrest. Now the significance of this case for us and for the GLAA is these three offenders were not we're not pleading guilty.

1:9:32.550 --> 1:9:33.830
Bev Bishton
Or pleading not guilty.

1:9:35.90 --> 1:9:38.270
Bev Bishton
And there's nothing like a case to learn from.

1:9:39.840 --> 1:9:40.690
Bev Bishton
So.

1:9:42.330 --> 1:9:47.780
Bev Bishton
I'd also had another case that I was dealing with in August.

1:9:49.290 --> 1:10:20.180
Bev Bishton
2020 as an at the the sister site for our Turkey business in Derby, and again this was raised by our team and we reported it to the GLAA via the agency. We actually reported it on 3 occasions. I think there have been investigations happening but nothing came of it until the third sort of intervention and then that was actually handed over to the Leicester police. But the difference in this particular case was.

1:10:21.150 --> 1:10:34.710
Bev Bishton
He did plead guilty, although it was at the last minute. But there was lessons learned from this case because it was in the middle of the other case that helped and form part of the discussion that I'm going to cover later.

1:10:35.900 --> 1:10:42.670
Bev Bishton
But as a business, when you're dealing with a case like this, there's an awful lot that you're stakeholder managing.

1:10:44.520 --> 1:10:55.100
Bev Bishton
And you know, it's the victim, colleagues, internal management, the agency provider GLAA or the police customers and the press.

1:10:56.80 --> 1:11:0.280
Bev Bishton
But the most important person in this process is the victim.

1:11:1.790 --> 1:11:10.130
Bev Bishton
Now for a number of you on the call, you will have come through the police ranks and the authorities.

1:11:10.830 --> 1:11:22.60
Bev Bishton
But the authorities for somebody that is law abiding in the main, is actually quite frightening. Of course, most of you on the call might have had a speeding ticket.

1:11:23.200 --> 1:11:36.240
Bev Bishton
You might have got points on the licence, but we're entering a world that's very, very different, and it isn't the everyday occurrence and it's a very small part of the HR's job.

1:11:37.580 --> 1:11:56.760
Bev Bishton
And one of the things that I think is underestimated is the information and technical knowledge that the authorities have really helps us practitioners when we're dealing with these sort of cases. So don't underestimate your areas of expertise.

1:11:58.380 --> 1:12:9.340
Bev Bishton
But in terms of stakeholder management, you're actually trying to manage something that you're actually not in control of because the control is actually handed over.

1:12:10.170 --> 1:12:21.450
Bev Bishton
And that's where certainly and I know and I can see that Jane Bladen's on the call, I often reach out to my own network when we're handling these types of cases.

1:12:23.690 --> 1:12:38.20
Bev Bishton
But what I thought might be quite useful is to just give you a timeline of this case and and how it went. So it actually the actual victim commence working at the site in December 2017.

1:12:40.30 --> 1:12:52.320
Bev Bishton
An acute concerns weren't raised until July 18, but they were raised because the employee was wearing the same clothes and not having food, and the agency was contacted by our HR team.

1:12:53.290 --> 1:12:53.760
Bev Bishton
And.

1:12:55.400 --> 1:13:1.130
Bev Bishton
It was agreed that it needed to be flagged to the GLAA, which it was in July 2018.

1:13:2.600 --> 1:13:12.210
Bev Bishton
The victim was transferred from the agency contract onto a avara contract, which you'll see later. I think it was was one of the significant things that helped.

1:13:13.360 --> 1:13:18.750
Bev Bishton
Arrests were made and the victim meant to the NRM in October.

1:13:20.250 --> 1:13:44.90
Bev Bishton
And again, really important to this case, we were able to transfer this employee to another of our site. So we were able to keep regular contact with this employee supporting them, but also that gave the GLA real access. The case went to magistrates. It then went to the Crown Court on the 4th of November and the CPS were confident.

1:13:45.220 --> 1:13:55.700
Bev Bishton
Of a full case being heard and all during these times, we're starting to ask our witnesses and our HR colleagues and the victim to keep the Diaries free for court.

1:13:57.260 --> 1:13:59.280
Bev Bishton
It was then planned for May.

1:14:0.600 --> 1:14:7.250
Bev Bishton
2020 and that was all planned in and then I think on the 5th of May it was delayed.

1:14:9.360 --> 1:14:30.250
Bev Bishton
And I've got most of this from scrawling through emails. It's amazing how much you you have on e-mail, but there's also a lot, a lot that you forget. And Kath has a lesson sort of learnt there. So in terms of the timeline, we then commence the case in our Derby site.

1:14:31.880 --> 1:14:39.620
Bev Bishton
This case was then gonna possibly go to court in January 2021, but again, I think that was delayed.

1:14:41.430 --> 1:15:1.920
Bev Bishton
I met with Stefan at the GLAA, the GLAA as an organization was familiar to me, but not at that stage. We didn't have any contacts, certainly with the press. But Jim, who's our internal comms manager and I met just before, I think the week after. I think we couldn't go anywhere. I think COVID had hit.

1:15:3.10 --> 1:15:10.230
Bev Bishton
And that was really useful in understanding what might happen from a press point of view and how that might be managed.

1:15:11.620 --> 1:15:25.770
Bev Bishton
The other case was actually concluded in August 2021, so a number of the internal stakeholder management and the external stakeholder management was handled in that way, which then fed into this case and was really helpful.

1:15:27.540 --> 1:15:38.700
Bev Bishton
Kathryn got some court warnings for possibly going to court in January 2022 and again Diaries were kept clear.

1:15:39.550 --> 1:15:45.0
Bev Bishton
That was delayed, possibly to July. And finally we ended up having.

1:15:46.110 --> 1:16:9.790
Bev Bishton
The the case start on the 27th of July, but what was really useful is and the GLAA visit to support those witnesses and the HR team on what to expect, how it was going to work. And I remember a call from Kath saying everybody feels a whole lot better now that we've had that session.

1:16:11.390 --> 1:16:12.80
Bev Bishton
And then.

1:16:13.570 --> 1:16:15.40
Bev Bishton
The the sentence thing.

1:16:16.810 --> 1:16:17.980
Bev Bishton
So what did we do?

1:16:19.310 --> 1:16:48.590
Bev Bishton
Well, actually the main point of contact with the GLAA officers, Laura, Stuart and Andy, was cast at the Abergavenny site and that enabled for what was a long, protracted case. Keeping that dialogue open and knowing what each other was sort of up to, was able to support those that were attending court, making sure that they were able to get there, that they understood, they would be paid all the sort of support around what we were doing as a Vara.

1:16:48.660 --> 1:16:50.820
Bev Bishton
For for those individuals.

1:16:53.0 --> 1:16:58.940
Bev Bishton
Importantly, being able to do some prepared statements in the event of a.

1:17:0.300 --> 1:17:3.560
Bev Bishton
Successful outcome or an unsuccessful outcome.

1:17:4.410 --> 1:17:22.550
Bev Bishton
I'm I'm one of my roles was actually making sure that the ethical leads and the retailers were kept brief all the way through this. The one thing that they they find really hard is when they're on the back foot as we do because it is key to our reputation.

1:17:24.370 --> 1:17:34.890
Bev Bishton
And I set up an internal teams channel. A lot of people have got these going, but it it is a really useful tool when you've got a case that's moving quite fast.

1:17:37.440 --> 1:17:49.270
Bev Bishton
One of the things that we had was a deep brief. So Andy and Laura joined me and Kath and Sarah at her Abergavenny site on the 18th of October.

1:17:50.90 --> 1:17:55.340
Bev Bishton
And it was a really great opportunity to explain how it was for each other.

1:17:56.320 --> 1:18:7.230
Bev Bishton
And now it wasn't a live case. There was things that were able to be shared that hadn't previously been able to be shared, that we could learn from. So there was lessons learned from each side.

1:18:8.710 --> 1:18:21.520
Bev Bishton
But the thing that I was, you know, impressed with my knowledge at the GLAA and the lack of resources that you have investing in this time was significant for me.

1:18:22.560 --> 1:18:32.520
Bev Bishton
And and really, really helpful. I wasn't able to achieve it with the last case in Derby and I felt it was a missed opportunity.

1:18:33.410 --> 1:19:2.700
Bev Bishton
But at the on the 18th, what both me and Kath hadn't realised, and I think it's really the significance of what Laura Stewart and Andy have achieved with Kathryn. The Abergavenny team is wow, this is a first. It's the first that's been tested by a jury on the modern slavery legislation. And I think, you know, the GLAA should be rightly proud of that, that that's tested the legislation.

1:19:5.180 --> 1:19:7.950
Bev Bishton
And and achieve the the results.

1:19:9.390 --> 1:19:14.400
Bev Bishton
So in summary, sort of the the the learnings, what worked well well.

1:19:15.390 --> 1:19:18.220
Bev Bishton
Significantly, the victim has become a survivor.

1:19:19.460 --> 1:19:22.190
Bev Bishton
We've achieved you've achieved convictions.

1:19:23.890 --> 1:19:31.550
Bev Bishton
Colleagues are critical in alerting in the 1st place and in both these cases, that's where the alerts have come from.

1:19:32.750 --> 1:19:46.270
Bev Bishton
And I'm confident that a lot of that is largely to do with the culture we have in our business, the training we give and the engagement we have across our, our.

1:19:46.960 --> 1:19:48.860
Bev Bishton
Business that allows that.

1:19:51.600 --> 1:19:59.290
Bev Bishton
Employing the victim directly gave that victim confidence that actually they could reach out.

1:20:1.140 --> 1:20:4.410
Bev Bishton
Them being able to move the victim to another rivara facility.

1:20:5.770 --> 1:20:11.550
Bev Bishton
The communication between the GLAA and avara for this case has been extremely strong.

1:20:12.290 --> 1:20:19.950
Bev Bishton
And it it was able to build confidence in CAFE and the team because it was very, very supportive.

1:20:21.970 --> 1:20:28.660
Bev Bishton
What did we learn? Well, actually, though, it's not always possible for information in a criminal case to be shared.

1:20:29.780 --> 1:20:40.70
Bev Bishton
And on the face of it, that can appear non collaborative. So sometimes explaining why something can't be shared is as insightful as anything.

1:20:41.240 --> 1:20:44.170
Bev Bishton
And like this case it can take a long time.

1:20:45.370 --> 1:20:48.950
Bev Bishton
My experience is no case is the same and you will miss things.

1:20:49.710 --> 1:20:53.820
Bev Bishton
The investigation teams are different and that will bring different dynamics.

1:20:55.550 --> 1:21:10.700
Bev Bishton
Often the victim is the employee of the agency, so as a labour user we are reliant on them in some of the communication that happens between us, the agency and the GLAA.

1:21:12.480 --> 1:21:27.650
Bev Bishton
Because of the length of time, you know the impact on the victim and witness, you know to prepare them for a court case that in this case took four years from saying, you know, that's a lot for them to sit on.

1:21:28.750 --> 1:21:32.560
Bev Bishton
So we've learned, you know a lot about that and.

1:21:33.660 --> 1:21:44.490
Bev Bishton
One of the things that I'd not realized, and I think is is, is something that would be helpful for more HR practitioners to know or ethical people to know is there's legal stuff.

1:21:45.340 --> 1:21:58.30
Bev Bishton
Like offering inducements are better job that you can't do in a criminal case, whereas actually if I'd have known that I could go. Actually I I can. I can find this person, a role in any of our sites.

1:21:59.820 --> 1:22:4.770
Bev Bishton
And just understanding those, those two parts I think are quite useful.

1:22:6.250 --> 1:22:8.260
Bev Bishton
And what do I take from this particular?

1:22:10.180 --> 1:22:13.0
Bev Bishton
Case we're working together a cheese results.

1:22:13.780 --> 1:22:15.730
Bev Bishton
Umm. And it's not easy.

1:22:16.350 --> 1:22:17.840
Bev Bishton
But it's the right thing to do.

1:22:19.190 --> 1:22:28.720
Bev Bishton
And as Alyssa mentioned earlier, that was the outcome in terms of the convictions that were achieved last week or week last Friday.

1:22:29.890 --> 1:22:45.900
Bev Bishton
And the judge actually added the the kindness show to the victims by colleagues at work and avara and employer who was responsible and took responsibility for the welfare of employees seriously. So I think together we can be really proud of this conviction.

1:22:47.200 --> 1:22:48.650
Bev Bishton
And that partnership?

1:22:50.290 --> 1:22:57.670
Bev Bishton
So I'd like to open up any questions and that Andy can help with or.

1:22:58.10 --> 1:22:58.670
Bev Bishton
Umm.

1:23:1.490 --> 1:23:2.130
Bev Bishton
Front.

1:23:0.600 --> 1:23:4.970
Suzanne (Guest)
Can I just ask if if Kath wants to add anything to what you've just said?

1:23:5.220 --> 1:23:5.670
Bev Bishton
No.

1:23:6.390 --> 1:23:10.200
Suzanne (Guest)
Kathryn, you want to come on screen and tell us if there's anything you want to add?

1:23:11.430 --> 1:23:25.930
Kath Florence
Hi everybody. Uh not much to add, Bev's covered it all really. But yeah, it's from my personal point of view. It's the thanks to the the colleagues at GLAA that's supported us, the victim, the witnesses at site to secure this fantastic result.

1:23:35.980 --> 1:23:36.380
Bev Bishton
Come.

1:23:26.200 --> 1:23:48.310
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you. And I can tell you that migrants and work have put in an A comment that they would like to connect with you if possible. So I'm sure you'll be able to do that after the webinar. I'm looking for questions. I'm. I've got a number of people thanking you for sharing your experience. Tanya does ask Tanya Cummins. Why did you take so long to be convicted? Was it due to COVID?

1:23:50.530 --> 1:23:52.700
Bev Bishton
Frank, do you want to answer that or Andy?

1:23:54.930 --> 1:23:55.380
Andrew Davies (GLAA)
Yeah.

1:23:56.290 --> 1:24:17.210
Andrew Davies (GLAA)
I can answer that for you, Tanya. Yeah. We lost the trial on 2 occasions due to COVID the backlog and the criminal justice system, the availability of cord. We then hit with the barristers strikes earlier this year. So we had a number of hurdles that we had to get over to get this to court, but generally that should have gone to court within 18 months.

1:24:18.190 --> 1:24:48.0
Suzanne (Guest)
Right. I have to tell you that there's a lot of people coming in not with questions, but with basically saying well done, fantastic, brilliant, all the superlatives. And of course from the GLAA CEO, thanks so much, Bev, for the presentation, for everything that you and your team did support the victim and to work with us, it really was, I have to say from what you've just told us and incredibly great collaborative effort and I would hope that we would be able to get some sort of information about your presentation.

1:24:48.160 --> 1:25:8.70
Suzanne (Guest)
To the board when we next meet, because I I don't know, ma'am. How many of my fellow board members are on. But it's nice to hear something really positive that has been achieved. So thank you very much. But Lydia, turnaround asked thanks so much. Bev would be good to know what level of training you give to employees.

1:25:11.730 --> 1:25:31.700
Bev Bishton
Well, Umm, we we we have we've had a workshop running for some time code which which was a a workshop designed course. We then had to change it slightly when we went into COVID as most people did, but we've revamped it recently.

1:25:32.800 --> 1:25:39.350
Bev Bishton
So it's a workshop, two to three hours interactive focusing on the people that actually.

1:25:39.810 --> 1:25:51.320
Bev Bishton
Umm, we'll be able to spot the signs and and and symptoms. You know, security key receptions are key occupational health. A key line management.

1:25:52.750 --> 1:25:53.730
Bev Bishton
So workshop.

1:25:54.60 --> 1:26:24.210
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you. I don't have any other questions. So it's for me to thank both Bev and Kath and sorry Bev and Kath for the work you've done on Bev, particularly for the presentation you've given today. I do have another question, one come in. Brian Stalin has asked how many GLAA licence holders are there and does each providing branch have to be licenced now? I think this is a general question, not to you.

1:26:25.470 --> 1:26:26.40
Bev Bishton
Good.

1:26:24.680 --> 1:26:55.190
Suzanne (Guest)
But you know, it's not you. It's just said general question. I assumed it was for you, but we will pick it up, Brian, at some point, whether we're going to answer it this morning or we will put something in the chat later, we'll come back to it one way or the other. So thanks very much, Bevin. Kathy, I'll move on now to the next item, which is strategic assessment and repositioning intelligence basically. So while we're building on our strategic assessment and our our approach to intelligence.

1:26:55.330 --> 1:27:3.110
Suzanne (Guest)
Using analysts and working on what is going on in the sector and I've got Sam Ireland, who's going to talk about that? Sam, please.

1:27:3.780 --> 1:27:8.450
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah. I'm Sam Ireland I'm the head of governance in.

1:27:9.490 --> 1:27:10.60
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Well, at the moment.

1:27:11.780 --> 1:27:18.880
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
I can't show you the presentation at the moment because it hasn't gone to yet, but what I wanted to do is just talk around some of the.

1:27:21.180 --> 1:27:21.600
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Sorry.

1:27:23.0 --> 1:27:23.300
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Let me.

1:27:18.820 --> 1:27:25.390
Suzanne (Guest)
Sam, could you speak up a little bit? I'm hearing you, but it's quite soft and I don't know if others are hearing you with clearly either.

1:27:25.820 --> 1:27:28.310
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Just turn the volume up on your mic. Is that better?

1:27:30.430 --> 1:27:31.490
Suzanne (Guest)
It's a little bit better.

1:27:32.470 --> 1:27:36.80
Suzanne (Guest)
Umm. It says uh Elysia’s also saying it's very quiet.

1:27:36.660 --> 1:27:37.750
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
So how about?

1:27:37.460 --> 1:27:39.850
Suzanne (Guest)
And people can't hear you at all. Very quiet.

1:27:40.730 --> 1:27:41.580
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Oh my goodness.

1:27:41.390 --> 1:27:44.630
Suzanne (Guest)
Sorry, I can't hear Sam. So, Sam, we need you come in.

1:27:44.340 --> 1:27:44.680
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Hang.

1:27:46.270 --> 1:27:49.960
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
The the only thing I'm doing is turning my mic on and off. Can you hear me any better?

1:27:57.250 --> 1:27:58.60
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Yeah. Can you?

1:27:51.100 --> 1:27:58.910
Suzanne (Guest)
I can hear you now, but I don't know how other people. There was a rush thing. They couldn't. But that seems to have stopped.

1:27:59.480 --> 1:28:0.390
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
You hear me now?

1:28:1.550 --> 1:28:6.910
Suzanne (Guest)
Use external mic on headphones. I can't hear. Still nothing. Same very faint.

1:28:5.760 --> 1:28:7.460
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Thing. Oh my goodness.

1:28:8.930 --> 1:28:9.240
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
On it.

1:28:8.480 --> 1:28:11.690
Suzanne (Guest)
Do you have microphones that I mean headphones there they could use?

1:28:15.260 --> 1:28:15.530
Suzanne (Guest)
Well.

1:28:12.720 --> 1:28:15.910
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Let me go and get some bear with me one second.

1:28:16.300 --> 1:28:23.210
Suzanne (Guest)
OK, why you're doing that? Alicia, can you answer Brian's general question or can Nicola do that?

1:28:30.990 --> 1:28:31.470
Nicola Ray
I can.

1:28:24.430 --> 1:28:33.350
Suzanne (Guest)
How many GLAA licence holders are there and does each providing branch have to be licenced? Nicola, maybe you take that and what I wish I have a bit of a throat rest.

1:28:58.230 --> 1:28:58.420
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
The.

1:28:34.220 --> 1:28:59.300
Nicola Ray
It's like can. I was just, I was just typing something so I will type it up again in a minute. There are at the moment around about 1200 licence holders and I was about to say whether a branch needs to be licenced depends on how the business is set up so effectively. Each legal entity who supplies workers have to have a licence. So it depends on your business model as to whether you've set each branch up as a separate legal entity or not.

1:29:0.250 --> 1:29:1.150
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Nicola.

1:29:0.290 --> 1:29:3.280
Nicola Ray
Is is the simple answer, but I'm putting it in the chat as well.

1:29:3.650 --> 1:29:6.590
Suzanne (Guest)
That's great. While we're waiting for them to come back and hope.

1:29:6.320 --> 1:29:9.650
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
I'm back. Can you hear me better? I've got some headphones in.

1:29:8.260 --> 1:29:13.220
Suzanne (Guest)
I can hear you perfectly and no one is saying no, so let.

1:29:13.860 --> 1:29:16.870
Suzanne (Guest)
Let's hope that your voice will reach though. Go for it, Sam.

1:29:16.830 --> 1:29:21.90
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Ohh technology. Ohh brilliant. You can now hear me now. Thank you.

1:29:20.260 --> 1:29:22.950
Suzanne (Guest)
Everyone. Yes, better. Wonderful.

1:29:23.840 --> 1:29:39.770
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And so yeah, thanks for having me. So the report on the strategic assessment and the control strategy is going to the board later this month. So I'm just gonna give you a bit of a verbal update because nothing's been formally approved. And then I'll give you a bit of an overview of where we're at with Intel.

1:29:41.0 --> 1:29:57.100
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
So some of the key areas that we're looking at is still around, UM, managing risk to workers in the shellfish sector. We see a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese nationals, male and female, often working together in familial groups.

1:29:58.70 --> 1:30:3.180
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
We are seeing that there are links to then Chinese restaurants where.

1:30:3.560 --> 1:30:7.620
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And the the shellfish that have been gathered are being sold on.

1:30:8.330 --> 1:30:10.600
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And the locations can be sporadic.

1:30:11.360 --> 1:30:25.670
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
There have been changes to the UM to the bed, so Class B beds an hour out, so Class A beds are are available which has displayed some of the workers. We're seeing those higher up in the UK in the north of the UK.

1:30:27.100 --> 1:30:31.140
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And that's kind of changing the way that we've seen this work in the past.

1:30:31.990 --> 1:30:37.710
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Umm, so work is is still ongoing with that and uh, we look at that still as a as a risk area.

1:30:39.540 --> 1:31:10.450
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
We are still getting quite a lot of reports on forced and compulsory labour, and particularly in high risk sectors, we're doing a lot of work at the moment trying to identify what are our key high risk sectors. We just touching on some of the Intel work at the moment. We have two new Intel analysts who have joined the team and then further one who's just been recruited these last couple of weeks. So following however long vetting takes, they'll be in post and that has created an enormous amount of.

1:31:10.550 --> 1:31:12.650
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
The capacity for us to do a lot more.

1:31:13.150 --> 1:31:38.520
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And intelligence products that we haven't done before, so really specific problem profiles a lot more research, a lot more analysis pulling together information from different partner agencies as well to add that value. So although we see a lot of reports, particularly in the car wash sector, agriculture and construction, we're doing a lot more analytical work at the moment to look at well what our, our, our high risk sectors.

1:31:39.140 --> 1:31:39.790
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And.

1:31:40.540 --> 1:31:50.330
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
We're still seeing a lot of Romanian adult males, uh reported both as victims and offenders, but we are starting to see an increase in Indian and Middle Eastern nationals.

1:31:50.990 --> 1:32:0.510
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And labour shortages, that's a cross cutting theme across all the risk areas that we are looking at and and they those labour shortages continue.

1:32:1.300 --> 1:32:19.620
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And we are seeing a wide and in Pool of vulnerable workers due to the EU exit and the cost of living crisis as well is is having an impact as is the war in Ukraine at the moment as well putting pressure on those margins, making them a little bit tighter.

1:32:21.170 --> 1:32:38.470
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And Nicola touched on or or not touched on gave a presentation earlier on this seasonal workers scheme, we are seeing issues around that most frequently. We're having allegations around national minimum wage contracts, record keeping, working conditions, that kind of thing.

1:32:39.670 --> 1:32:44.120
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And and the labour supply short shortage is.

1:32:45.150 --> 1:33:1.340
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Having a having an an impact particularly as well, particularly exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Previously Ukrainians would make up to around 67% of agricultural workers. And so we're seeing an impact there.

1:33:2.260 --> 1:33:16.620
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And the seasonal workers scheme is set to continue to 2024, so Nicola and her team are doing a lot of work to make sure we're LinkedIn in the right places. And you know, the those reporting lines are available.

1:33:17.950 --> 1:33:36.480
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And then umbrella companies, so umbrella companies acting as unlicenced gangmasters and exploiting workers, is an issue for us and things that we are seeing, we're seeing a higher incidence of this particular in meat processing and poultry.

1:33:37.100 --> 1:33:50.400
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And and there is a, there is an increased use of umbrella and Minnie umbrella companies. We have had some internal training to upskill our offices and our Intel teams around what that.

1:33:51.160 --> 1:33:55.190
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
What that actually means, how do we spot it? What can we do about it? But it's quite complex.

1:33:55.910 --> 1:33:56.550
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And.

1:33:57.670 --> 1:34:12.240
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
So again, as I've mentioned before, the the cross cutting theme here is around UM, the cost of living, the labour shortages. So all those things lead to pressures where you know people are finding other ways to to make sure that their their margins are are right.

1:34:13.320 --> 1:34:14.80
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Umm.

1:34:16.630 --> 1:34:29.360
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
So yeah, our proposed priorities, which we are gonna discuss at the board is around the shellfish sector. We will be looking at defining further, defining what our high risk sectors are.

1:34:30.70 --> 1:34:34.50
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And the seasonal workers scheme and umbrella companies.

1:34:35.350 --> 1:34:50.780
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Now before I move on to Intel, because that setting of those priorities links to the Intel work, is there any? Are there any questions that I can take at this point and I might need to pull Nicola in if that there's some on the regulated sector?

1:34:50.530 --> 1:34:57.850
Suzanne (Guest)
And nothing has come in at the moment, but I'll let you know if something does. At the moment we're still a good to go for you to continue.

1:34:58.260 --> 1:35:4.110
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Great. Thank you. So before I do just go into the Intel part, as I mentioned before, because we have.

1:35:5.30 --> 1:35:35.180
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
A greater analytical capacity. At the moment there is going to be a lot more analytical products that come out and just that that ability to be able to share some of the findings in the trends that that we will be analyzing will be much greater than it has been for quite a long time. So it's just been, Donna, bless her on her own. So we're quite excited about that. So moving on to the intelligence modeling and the the changes that we're making there.

1:35:35.280 --> 1:35:49.990
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
As I've mentioned just before, I just described some of the key priorities that we're working on and that will really set the tone for how we're looking at in information and prioritising prioritizing that work. We do get a lot of information flowing through the Intel function.

1:35:51.110 --> 1:36:16.120
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Some of it not useful, some of it quite challenging for us to to progress, but some of it really, really good quality and and at times you know you've heard previously we're a small organization, there's there's not many humans who can do do the different work to get it from A to B. So we do have to prioritize and we have to make decisions about when we're gonna act and deploy the different tools and resources that we have.

1:36:17.510 --> 1:36:24.490
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
So the Intel team is split into different functions. We have regional field intelligence officers who are.

1:36:24.570 --> 1:36:40.950
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And out in the field developing information, working with partners, working quite closely with the syndicates to to take a piece of information that we've got and kind of build it into a bigger picture. So that hopefully we can then take it on as an operation and deploy teams that way.

1:36:41.820 --> 1:36:57.290
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
We also have the Intel desk team and they triage a lot of the information that comes in risk, assess it and decide where it needs to go. They also do a lot of disk based Intel development and then we've got the analytical team that I've just been discussing a previously under Donna.

1:36:59.270 --> 1:37:22.820
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
At the moment we've had quite a reduction in staff at it, particularly on the desk team, and that has caused an impact in triaging and it's got to a bit of a, a process, a bit of a place at the moment where they're not being, they're not able to develop the Intel as much as they want. So we've had to jiggle some resources around to make sure that flows. Phil Cain, I think I saw your name on the list is.

1:37:24.40 --> 1:37:25.150
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
New to our board.

1:37:25.290 --> 1:37:46.810
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And lots of Intel experience ex police has come in and done a review of our Intel processors and suggested a different structure and a new way of working. So we are currently working through that and that will look at just formalizing and modernizing our approach to intelligence, the different.

1:37:48.350 --> 1:38:19.310
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Like documents that were gonna produce the consistency of things, how that feeds through the governance process, that how a piece of information will get developed into core products that I've just described, problem profile, subject profiles right through to how we use our resources through our tasking and coordination process, which will then enable a job to be created and resources delegated and you know positive outcomes achieved at the end of that. So there's a lot of work going on at the moment.

1:38:21.20 --> 1:38:35.490
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Around that, and as I say, particularly around tightening the governance around the flow of intelligence and we have, as I say, we've just recruited in the analyst side of the business, we've got a new.

1:38:35.580 --> 1:39:0.590
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And intelligence assistant who's just started about three weeks ago, and we've just recruited 2 more, so that team will be bolstered, which, again, will enable us to do much better work with the intelligence that we receive, produce much better products. We're also looking at modernizing the approach to intelligence through.

1:39:0.920 --> 1:39:3.590
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And the training the.

1:39:5.640 --> 1:39:21.530
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
I wouldn't say PPI, but it's not PPR and it's not. I can't remember what it's called IP. It's got all those letters in it. So that's a specific intelligence training for our officers and our Intel function to again just bring that, bring that level up a bit.

1:39:23.60 --> 1:39:24.290
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
That's it from me.

1:39:24.430 --> 1:39:52.800
Suzanne (Guest)
Sam, I've got a message here from Beth and Hunt. Does the GLAA have any guidance and how to get information on suspected cases to you in the best way or format stronger together runs tackling modern slavery training to suppliers on a regular basis and would be really keen to share any guidance checklist that you have on how to share information in the best format to ensure it's of the highest quality.

1:39:53.300 --> 1:40:1.290
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Yeah, we can definitely. So at the minute we don't have anything specific. We don't have anything written down, but we definitely could do that.

1:40:30.120 --> 1:40:30.940
Suzanne (Guest)
Except.

1:40:1.590 --> 1:40:32.240
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And the way it works at the moment is the team will take calls or emails and they will then work with the person who they're talking to to, you know, kind of retrieve that information and get the most out of them. And we are working on developing our website that will have some of that information in. So it will help people to articulate more the information that they they need to give we you know, we accept that not everybody knows what intelligence is and doesn't know how to how to share that. So yeah, thank you for that. We will definitely be able to do that. And Frank just had his hand up though.

1:40:32.320 --> 1:40:34.950
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Suzanne, I didn't know whether he wanted to come in at this point.

1:40:32.460 --> 1:40:37.190
Suzanne (Guest)
Oh, right. Right. I. Yes, please, Frank, do you come in?

1:40:36.970 --> 1:40:58.630
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
But thanks, Suzanne. Thanks, Sam. I'm just on that. We, we have a for those that do attend. We have regular themed webinars with our partners HMRC and EASI, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate. The next themed webinar is going to be looking at that issue of intelligence, how businesses can best use it for their own.

1:40:59.110 --> 1:41:21.660
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
Uh to help them manage their risks across their business operations across their supply chains, and also how is it best shared with law enforcement agencies such as ourselves, so as soon as that webinar is pulled together and we've got the presenters, we'll be sharing links and it's open to anyone to register and attend.

1:41:25.670 --> 1:41:26.220
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Yep.

1:41:22.140 --> 1:41:35.430
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Frank. I we've got another question. Sam, do you want employees from the inside of a Fender sides who would know all the corner cutting that agencies or any labour providers do?

1:41:39.200 --> 1:41:43.750
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
I'm gonna say no. But what we do have is.

1:41:44.500 --> 1:42:2.870
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
People who are experienced in policing, so they've seen it many, many times, how how people operate. We do work really closely with other agencies such as, you know, the NCA borders to understand kind of trends and patterns in how people operate.

1:42:4.510 --> 1:42:12.420
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
So yeah, I think I believe our approach to understanding you know how people do stuff we have.

1:42:13.180 --> 1:42:39.350
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And the best network and we do make best use of that to understand cause that a lot of the intelligence gaps that are across law enforcement, particularly around you know how people are roped into being exploited and things like that it that is kind of quite clandestine the the actual you know kind of key steps that they take. But yeah we're plugged into all the right places to make sure that we we know that.

1:42:39.950 --> 1:42:45.260
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Sam. Frank, I assume that's the legacy hand or do you want to come in and say anything further?

1:42:45.800 --> 1:43:16.40
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
No, just just on that point. Again, I think, Sam, what what Sam's has been saying, you know our all the formal stakeholder group is the worker NGL group and in the same said, we plugged into a lot of community based groups or charities that work with vulnerable workers. And for us there are really good source of information and guidance as to those issues that have been mentioned in the chat. So it's that kind of relationship.

1:43:16.110 --> 1:43:25.150
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
Building that we really keen to continue building on and using to help inform our strategies and our activities.

1:43:48.120 --> 1:43:48.780
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Umm.

1:43:48.900 --> 1:43:54.690
Suzanne (Guest)
Interested in submitting quality info to you when we don't know if it's of any use?

1:43:55.150 --> 1:44:12.550
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Yeah. Thanks for that. And I, you know, I appreciate the fact that you acknowledge it. It is difficult for us to provide it updates on things that have been sent and we we, I've heard this before from other agencies and other people and it is a challenge for us and it's mostly due to resourcing so.

1:44:14.50 --> 1:44:21.660
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
What I'm doing at the moment I'm working with a a current another agency at the moment to look at. Well, how do we share that information? How do we?

1:44:22.360 --> 1:44:51.340
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
You know, effectively and quickly really share back with you. Yeah, that was helpful. And and something's being progressed because I know you know in some cases it would be great to know everything that's happening, but sometimes people just want to know. Yeah, it's been picked up and it's being looked at something as little as that. So I am looking at that. That is one of the things on my list is how do we feedback and engage more so people understand that when they have given something, it's something has happened with it. So yeah, that is on my list of things that I'm looking at. So thank you for that.

1:44:56.420 --> 1:44:57.410
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Thank you, Phil.

1:44:51.670 --> 1:44:59.370
Suzanne (Guest)
Phil said he's happy to help. He's Phil Brewer from the Human Trafficking Foundation, and that's that. You can pick that up. We also have.

1:44:58.660 --> 1:45:1.610
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
I've written your name down, Phil. You're on my list.

1:45:0.670 --> 1:45:25.140
Suzanne (Guest)
You, you, you are the best. Uh. Steve Mercer has written just a point about worker exploitation. Is not always the headline stuff that ends up in court. There is a significant amount of underpayment that is usually underreported since it's under the radar, having expertise that know how labour providers exploit the system would be very helpful.

1:45:26.110 --> 1:45:37.870
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Yeah. And I think to be fair, I do think that some of that knowledge that we have is you know, particularly in the regulated in the regulation team under Nicola, you know all that kind of.

1:45:37.970 --> 1:45:52.870
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
A different processing of employment practices you know is is very well understood. But yeah, there's definitely always more to learn. And as I say, we are, we are really LinkedIn with lots of other agencies to share that knowledge.

1:45:57.530 --> 1:45:58.660
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
There's another one in.

1:45:54.50 --> 1:46:11.780
Suzanne (Guest)
Well, Sam, that seems to bring that. Oh, no, no. You're very popular, girl. Yeah. Rebecca Winter has come in and said, how are reports inspected on without tip off? So she doesn't know if if that's a a question that's been asked before on other occasions, but she'd like to ask it now.

1:46:11.610 --> 1:46:17.850
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Could I bring Rebecca in? What do you mean? How are reports inspected on without a tip off? What? What reports do you mean?

1:46:18.560 --> 1:46:21.430
Suzanne (Guest)
Rebecca, can you be a little bit more specific in the chat?

1:46:23.780 --> 1:46:43.790
Suzanne (Guest)
While she's doing that, hopefully I will just mention about the next meeting and we are coming, going to have another meeting next year. It will be probably around April 2023. It'll be a joint webinar with the NGO and Workers Group and.

1:46:44.610 --> 1:46:51.720
Suzanne (Guest)
I have something for migrants at work, while Rebecca's hopefully coming back to us and that is what is your relooking relationship with unions?

1:46:52.840 --> 1:46:55.430
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Ooh, frank. Can I bring you in on this?

1:46:57.10 --> 1:46:57.470
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
Yeah.

1:46:56.380 --> 1:46:59.850
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
I don't think from an Intel point of view I don't.

1:47:1.130 --> 1:47:1.720
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
Yeah.

1:47:1.40 --> 1:47:3.920
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
I don't think we don't have that working relationship. Thanks Frank.

1:47:4.460 --> 1:47:35.130
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
Yeah, we do. We do have a again with the work NGO meeting, we do have regular contact with with trade unions. They're invited tool tool, the meetings again given what's happened in the last couple of years with COVID with the obviously the state of the economy, trade unions themselves are being very busy and committed to meeting the needs of workers in different areas.

1:47:35.230 --> 1:47:37.250
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
The of their lives, but.

1:47:38.150 --> 1:47:43.350
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
You know, as as as Sam said, I think every relationship can get get stronger and and get better.

1:47:44.590 --> 1:47:47.460
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
But, but yeah, we've got regular contact with the UC.

1:47:48.770 --> 1:47:50.0
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
A more strategic level.

1:47:50.670 --> 1:48:8.230
Frank Hanson (GLAA)
Uh, really? To help workers know about trade unions, but also to to help better inform trade union reps about the what the GLAA can do and and the resources that we've got that can help them in, in, in their role on the on the shop floor.

1:48:16.10 --> 1:48:16.380
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
No.

1:48:8.30 --> 1:48:25.540
Suzanne (Guest)
So thank you, Frank. I'm. I'm just, I know that our Rebecca, your mic has been allowed. Ohh. She's written back now. Would inspections on site and with organizations have potential tip off criminals within the industry and how would you prevent this?

1:48:28.60 --> 1:48:28.850
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Say.

1:48:29.920 --> 1:48:37.270
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Yeah, I mean, it depends on what the Intel says, where it's come from, what the content is as to how you would approach that.

1:48:37.800 --> 1:48:50.220
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
And and I don't know whether so we've got a Martin from a compliance side and also I'm not sure, Gemma, you still on the line, do you want to take this?

1:48:51.0 --> 1:48:51.800
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Might not be there.

1:48:52.60 --> 1:48:53.760
Suzanne (Guest)
Gemma Martin, are you with us?

1:48:56.0 --> 1:48:56.270
Gemma Kirby
Yeah.

1:48:55.840 --> 1:48:57.680
Martin Jones
Yeah, Martin, not Martin here.

1:48:57.60 --> 1:48:57.760
Gemma Kirby
I'm still happy.

1:48:57.80 --> 1:49:1.530
Suzanne (Guest)
OK. Martin, can you answer Rebecca or at least comment on Rebecca's question?

1:49:3.30 --> 1:49:5.990
Martin Jones
Hey, by basically every everything.

1:49:7.170 --> 1:49:36.660
Martin Jones
Information that we receive is looked at on on, on the basis of how we're going to approach approach that particular inspection. So what we would potentially do, if you have a source of information who is willing to be contacted, cause quite often we have sources who want to remain anonymous for for their own reasons, which makes things a little bit more difficult, but will still try try our best to deal with that. But we will try and see the source and basically then risk assess it from there to see what would happen.

1:49:36.740 --> 1:49:43.600
Martin Jones
You know, we'll try and find out as much information as possible before we'd actually visit a site or visit a labour provider, for example.

1:49:44.520 --> 1:49:44.980
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you.

1:49:44.700 --> 1:49:50.660
Martin Jones
I'm just to basically ensure that that we get everything right before we we start the investigation.

1:49:51.450 --> 1:49:51.790
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you.

1:49:51.500 --> 1:50:23.500
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
But I do think just on the back of that season, I think, yeah, when the Intel comes in and the, you know, the team are risk assessing it and if it goes out to Martin and his team or one of the SIO and their team that is a key consideration that is made is around you know if we do go into that what is what is the impact of people know could they be with the exploiter at the time. So that is a that is a risk assessment that is done to to understand you know how could they be tipped off and and what are the techniques and tactics do we need to do to.

1:50:23.830 --> 1:50:26.340
Samantha Ireland (GLAA)
Achieve. You know what? What we're aiming for.

1:50:27.170 --> 1:50:41.680
Suzanne (Guest)
Thank you, Sam. I think that is the end. Katherine has come back. Ohh yes, she is reminding me and I'm going to remind you that we would like you to do the feedback survey. Katherine Eschen put the.

1:50:42.740 --> 1:51:13.970
Suzanne (Guest)
A link I believe back in into the chat, but you can find it there. It's really helpful. It's a very short survey. It helps us understand our impact, improve our training and events such as this, which I thought were excellent presentations, which I hope everyone has found helpful. We have had an enormous number of people on the webinar for which I'm really really pleased about because I think the more we can get this information out to our stakeholders such as yourselves, the better.

1:51:14.310 --> 1:51:34.80
Suzanne (Guest)
I've, I said we're going to close now, but the next webinar will be a joint one with the NGO and Workers Group and the date of the meeting will probably be in April next year, so I can wish you a Merry Christmas at this point and I look forward to seeing you again in 2023. Thank you very much.

Transcript of LU/LP webinar 2 November 2022