Regulatory agencies can prosecute rulebreakers, but only the youthful Gangmasters Licensing Authority seems to do so, says John Forsyth
IN THE last couple of decades, a battalion of regulatory agencies has been established to supervise business practice on their patch.
Although vested with powers to prosecute those who break the rules, most appear reticent to use them.
Retice
nce does not appear to be a characteristic of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA), established in the aftermath of the incident that saw the death of at least 21 Chinese cocklepickers in Morecambe Bay in 2004.
The Gangmasters Licensing Act of 2004 made it a criminal offence for an agency to supply workers across a range of agricultural, horticultural, food packing and processing enterprises without a licence issued by the GLA. It also became an offence for a business to accept workers supplied by such an unlicensed agency.
Since it opened for business in 2005, the GLA has secured one criminal conviction – at Forfar Sheriff Court in April 2008 – with two more prosecutions in Lancaster and Maidstone coming this week. It has also revoked 70 licences, seven of them permanently, for breaches of the licensing requirements.
GLA chairman Paul Whitehouse made himself available for interview to hammer home the authority's case. No softly, softly approach for the GLA.
"When we were devising our strategy in 2005," says Whitehouse, "our primary objective was to get the industry to come into line with the new legal requirements. That's better than catching people who breach them, so we knew from the outset that communications would be at the heart of our effectiveness.
"By publicising each case in blunt terms we wanted to change the scuttlebutt in the industry, so when agencies and businesses are speaking among themselves they would tell each other to watch out for the GLA."
With only 25 people in the field, Whitehouse acknowledges the GLA "wanted to give the impression that we are bigger than we are".
There are probably not many people sufficiently self confident to quote Voltaire in a job interview. But Whitehouse told the recruitment panel for his post at the GLA that he would use prosecution "pour encourager les autres".
Even accepting the premise that offenders who think they may get caught are more likely to change their conduct, it is undeniable that the GLA has been unusually active in enforcement compared to fellow regulatory agencies.
"Maybe it's because of my police background," contemplates Whitehouse. "Every police officer learns to take risks. You come across an incident in the street and have to decide whether a quiet word will be more effective than hauling a suspect off to the station. Either can blow up in your face. I don't know the background of the senior management in other regulatory agencies but as far as I am aware I'm the only former police officer in the hotseat."
Whitehouse is the former Chief Constable of Sussex Police, and in 2001 found himself at the centre of a political row when David Blunkett, then home secretary, demanded he be sacked in the aftermath of the shooting of an unarmed man by two police firearms officers in 1998. The officers were prosecuted and acquitted but Whitehouse's decision to reinstate them caused a political furore. He worked for crime reduction charity Nacro until having his attention drawn to the GLA opening.
Although the agency's writ runs across the UK his staff of 25 is rather smaller than he has been used to. The role of intelligence is therefore crucial.
"We get tip offs from journalists, Citizens' Advice Bureaux, trade unions and members of the general public," he explains. "And most of all from genuine labour providers. When we were getting set up, I could see that the GLA might be a bed of nails in that the more successful we were in putting offenders out of business, the more unpopular we would get in the industry.
"I'm very pleased that we've managed to get across the notion that it is a fundamental part of our role to protect the 1,000 or so businesses who act properly and lawfully from the rogues who try to undercut them by exploiting and bullying their workers and don't pay the minimum wage or national insurance. The public lose out too from the rogues who don't pay tax and VAT. "
The GLA also tackles the "phoenix" phenomenon, in which the directors of a company that has been refused a licence or had its licence revoked, start up again under a new name. The GLA has refused applications on the grounds that directors are not fit and proper persons to hold a licence on the basis of past conduct.
The unfortunate origin of the GLA was in the deaths of Chinese cocklepickers in Morecambe Bay in 2004. Twenty-one bodies were recovered, although it is believed that two further individuals may have also died. The dead were all illegal immigrants, and there is no doubt that intelligence received by the GLA often overlaps with other areas of criminal activity, including people trafficking.
"We do exchange information with other agencies," says Whitehouse. "It's obvious that crooks who think they can make a fast buck by breaking one set of laws are likely to be breaking others."
The GLA is a creature of statute with a specified remit covering agricultural and horticultural work as well as their associated food processing and packing industries.
"It's not for me to tell the legislators what to do," says Whitehouse, pausing before the inevitable "but".
"But the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform recognises that there are significant problems in the catering, care and cleaning industries. We know there are thousands of chambermaids working for agencies and being paid less than the minimum wage. I think it would make some sense to give us the powers to oversee these industries too."
The full article contains 985 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
