Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)

I thank the noble Lord for his series of questions on this matter. To come back to its core, the statutory instrument has a strictly limited purpose to ensure that the same investigatory powers currently applying to the GLAA transfer smoothly to the new Fair Work Agency. The Fair Work Agency will enforce the legislation listed in Schedule 7—not all employment legislation. On day one, the Fair Work Agency will take the same remit and powers of current regulators, subject to existing and enhanced safeguards, which will continue to apply. On the noble Lord’s question about going wider, as I mentioned, this applies only to serious crimes under the legislation that have a minimum 12-month sentence threshold. This is a very limited series of offences—the most serious that we encounter in the labour market today. He also asked when the framework agreement will be published. It will be published on 7 April alongside the statutory instrument coming into force. The noble Lord questioned the culture of and approach to enforcement and recalled that we have previously discussed the interests of small businesses and micro-businesses and the culture of enforcement more generally. We have thought about how the Fair Work Agency will go about its work. The idea of a single enforcement body will make it easier for small employers to understand their obligations and get the right guidance early. The agency is focused only on taking firm action against the small minority of rogue employers who exploit workers, and the idea is to ensure fair competition for responsible businesses. That is the approach we are taking. This statutory instrument is about transferring those legal powers that are currently housed within one agency to another. On resourcing and funding, the budget for the Fair Work Agency will be set out in the usual way through the department’s allocation processes. Given that the Fair Work Agency will have additional areas of remit under the Employment Rights Act, it will have a larger budget than its predecessor organisations combined. We will communicate that budget when the organisation is set up. On the question of the transfer of employees, all staff will transfer under the Civil Service equivalent of TUPE—that is the model that will be used. I reinforce that the protections will remain in place. This is about ensuring that the powers for very serious crimes are transferred to the Fair Work Agency, so that it has the means to pursue those limited but serious offences under the full oversight of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner. This SI is essential to enable that smooth transition, and I commend it to the Committee.