GLAA Partnership bulletin - December 2024

Governance

Our 2024-26 business plan has been published on our website.

Emma Adams, Governance, Planning and Impact Manager provides an update on the plan.

Moving on from our Target Operating Model work, we are now a very different organisation. We have driven forward positive changes in leadership, culture, governance, our structure, processes and decision-making. 

This major change has seen huge improvements including: 
•    the length of time taken to issue a gangmaster licence (reduced by 56% in comparison to 2022-23)
•    100% of licence holders risk assessed
•    The number of businesses inspected for compliance has risen by 200%
•    Savings in our annual revenue budget, increasing our efficiency and providing better value for the taxpayer
•    Strides in our culture, behaviours and staff satisfaction, evidenced in our staff survey with increases across all key metrics 

We are focusing on our strategic goals over the next year:

Goal 1: Be a robust and effective regulator. 
Regulation is our core business, and we will ensure it is resourced appropriately and operates effectively
•    Last year we focused on reprioritising our efforts to improve and enhance our work as a regulator by streamlining our processes and embedding new ways of working
•    In 2024-25, we will be looking at reducing the time taken to make a licensing decision and increase the number of compliance inspections
•    Next year, 2025-26 our focus will be on partnership working by developing our relationships to increase the volume and quality of intelligence we receive

Goal 2: Be known as experts in addressing worker abuse and exploitation.
We will use our analytical and intelligence capabilities to influence policy and practice, develop and expand our prevention activities and ensure we can properly direct and prioritise our work
•    Last year, we focused on improving our intelligence processes by enhancing our understanding of worker exploitation in high-risk areas. We strengthened our intelligence model and governance processes
•    In 2024-25 – we will focus on improving data quality and management of data within the new intelligence model. We will be drawing on reliable evidence and intelligence
•    Next year, 2025-26 we aim to be influential in shaping policy and driving the conversation on victims of labour abuse and modern slavery

Goal 3: Be an essential enforcement partner. 
We will prioritise our enforcement operations through our strategic risk assessment, and work in collaboration with partners to tackle serious worker exploitation and abuse in line with those priorities
•    Last year, we reshaped the whole organisation to improve performance by dismantling our regional structure and merging operational teams to deploy resources much more effectively, prioritising our intelligence and assessments.
•    In the year of this business plan 2024-25, we will work closely with ROCUs (Regional Organised Crime Units) to ensure our expertise is fully harnessed in joint activities tackling the exploitation of workers by serious and organised crime groups
•    This work will set us up to work more effectively with partners on co-ordinated operational activity for next year 2025-26 

Our People and Resources
We are committed to investing in our colleagues, improving our diversity and inclusion, and changing our organisational culture to be able to fully deliver for the people we are here to protect
•    During this year, 2024-25, our focus is to launch our people strategy ensuring we have the right people, in the right place to deliver the right results
•    We will improve our data quality about our people, using automated recruitment systems and encouraging new starters to update their profiles. 
•    We will be developing our location strategy through our office move – increasing productivity and creativity 

Our theme of 2024-25 is ‘Building on Change’, as we have transformed the organisation in 23-24 and this year we really want to strengthen, analyse and maintain our progress so that we will thrive as an organisation in year 2025-2026.

Research and analysis

Our Q2 Intelligence Picture is now available on our website. This is a quarterly report providing an update on the GLAA intelligence picture of forced and compulsory labour in the UK. The report looks at our victim and exploiter profiles and identifies which sectors during this period have been identified as sectors at risk of labour exploitation.

Join our next online meeting for stakeholders and partners

Once a quarter, we invite stakeholders from various backgrounds to come and listen to what the GLAA is seeing within the labour market and the regulatory framework and how together we can make changes and improvements to stop worker exploitation. 

You could be a GLAA licence holder, supplying workers within our regulated sector. Or, you might be one of their clients, a labour user, who employs workers as part of your day-to-day business operations. 

We also welcome those from connected trade associations, unions, NGOs and retailers as well as anyone else connected with the UK’s fresh produce supply chain. 

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 14 January 2025 at 11.00am. To be added to the Stakeholder meeting mailing list or to suggest topics for future meetings, simply email us at communications@gla.gov.uk. Invitations to this meeting will be sent out in due course. 

Our guest speaker in January will be Alison Clarke, a service delivery manager at the Home Office Asylum Support, Resettlement and Accommodation (ASRA) team. They will share information about the e-visa system and legal employment of refugees.

Man bailed following unlicensed gangmaster arrest

An investigation is underway after a man was arrested following reports he was acting as an unlicensed Gangmaster.

GLAA officers carried out the arrest of a 54-year-old man in the Watton area of Norfolk on Thursday (24 October 2024), following reports that a man was forcing more than 70 men and women to work excessive hours, and withholding their wages.

They are all being supported by specially trained navigators from Justice and Care. 

Read more about this case in our latest news section.

Successful week of engagement for Op EMPACT

The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), participated in Operation EMPACT, a week of action aimed at tackling labour exploitation within the agricultural industry. 

Led by Europol and the National Crime Agency (NCA), Operation EMPACT is a Europe-wide intensification week which took place from 7 to 13 October 2024, focussing on tackling labour exploitation and human trafficking. The UK was one of 17 countries that participated in the operation, and the GLAA co-ordinated visits across the country, educating licensed suppliers and workers on understanding their rights.

During the week, GLAA officers visited nearly 30 farms across the country, where they engaged with more than 60 people including workers, managers, and farm owners. Our officers also visited processing factories and a vineyard, to carry out compliance checks.

Read more about Op EMPACT and this successful week of engagement in our news section.