Britain’s labour abuse watchdog has had its funding cut by the Home Office despite a dramatic surge in exploitation in the care sector.
The budget of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) has been set at £6.25m for 2024-25 compared with £7.7m last year, official figures show.
It means the agency’s budget has fallen by almost £2m in real terms compared with five years ago, once inflation is factored in.
The reduction comes amid what charities have called a “national scandal” in adult social care, with modern slavery helplines recording a surge in calls and the GLAA itself seeing a 400% rise in allegations since the launch of a post-Brexit scheme to recruit care workers from abroad.
In a damning report published last week, David Neal, the former chief inspector of borders and immigration, said visa caseworkers were now identifying cases of modern slavery “on a daily basis” and accused the Home Office of “totally inadequate” measures to mitigate exploitation risks before introducing the scheme in 2022.
The Care Quality Commission warned MPs in December that modern slavery was now “a feature” of the UK’s social care market.
Adis Sehic of the charity Work Rights Centre accused the government of “actively deprioritising” tackling modern slavery by cutting the GLAA’s funding, while at the same time “pouring billions into immigration enforcement”, such as through the Rwanda scheme.
“The government is sending a message that if you’re an employer and you want to abuse your workers, that’s fine. That’s not a priority,” he said.
The GLAA is an arm’s-length public body sponsored by the Home Office that is responsible for gathering intelligence about modern slavery and leading investigations into the crime, as well as providing specialist victim support.
Earlier this month, Phil Cain, its director, said it had 22 live investigations into the care sector alone and was receiving five to seven new reports each month, but that this was only the “tip of the iceberg”.
He told a House of Lords select committee that “resource-wise, there is a real challenge”, adding: “Lots more investment could take place in this space.”
Beyond adult social care abuses, the agency is underresourced to deal with problems in other high-risk sectors, Cain said. It runs a licensing scheme in four sectors including agriculture and horticulture, with companies supplying staff to UK businesses in those sectors subject to inspections.
But it has only 21 inspectors to oversee sectors with more than 520,000 workers. To be in line with international standards, it would need 52.
The Home Office did not say why the GLAA’s budget had fallen in recent years rather than increasing to cope with the growing demand.
But a spokesperson said it had given the agency an extra £1.1m as a one-off payment in 2023-24 to support a “transformation programme”, which was partly why its funding for 2024-25 was almost 20% lower.
The spokesperson added that the government was “committed to ensuring that the necessary support is available to help victims rebuild their lives, while bringing perpetrators to justice”.
Stephen Kinnock, shadow immigration minister, said exploitation on the government’s social care and agriculture schemes was “rife”. In a letter last week to Michael Tomlinson MP, the Home Office minister for countering illegal migration, he raised concerns about cuts to the GLAA budget and accused ministers of “turning a blind eye” to worker exploitation.
Kinnock said that there was a need for reforms, including the creation of a single enforcement body for employment rights and a ban on “repayment clauses”, which he said Labour would implement if elected.
The cuts to the GLAA budget are part of a bigger picture of funding reductions for modern slavery organisations under this government. The office of the independent anti-slavery commissioner, created as part of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to encourage good practice in dealing with modern slavery, is also having its budget cut.
The commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, told the home affairs committee in February that since taking up the role in December, she had been informed her funding would be slashed 5% each year she is in post. Despite her office being independent, she has also been told she needs “special permission” to recruit from outside the Home Office and currently has no permanent staff.
The Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael MP, said: “The government’s lack of action and now budget cuts show it is just not across this issue. It’s victims who sadly pay the price.”
