Licencing scheme for gangmasters unveiled

The move will require anyone who supplies labourers to the agriculture or food processing and packing industries to hold a licence. Gangmasters who operate without a valid licence after they become mandatory will be punished with fines of up to £5,000 or up to ten years in prison.

Fruit, flower and other crop pickers will be among the 600,000 workers - many of them foreign nationals - who are expected to benefit from the new rules. The licences are to be administered by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA).

Gangmasters themselves will be charged between £250 and £4,000 per licence, depending on their business turnover.

Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) minister Jim Knight said: "We are acting to protect everyone involved in picking, processing, preparing or packing produce if they are supplied by gangmasters. We consulted with industry, employers and unions to come up with what we are certain is the best solution."

Licencing scheme

The new licencing system would be reviewed after one year to ensure it was working effectively, added the minister. The scheme would also help to keep track of the number of gangmasters operating in Britain.

Licencing would start from April 6 and was expected to become mandatory from October 1. It will become an offence to use an unlicenced gangmaster from December 1. The shellfish-gathering sector would start slightly later, with licencing due to start on October and becoming mandatory from April 2007.

Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, commented: "This is the right move for agriculture and the food industry and its workers across the country. It paves the way for a fair yet robust licencing system which the industry can unite behind.

"Importantly it serves notice on the rogues and scoundrels who plague this industry. Those who rip-off and exploit their workers and clients, wherever they may be in the food chain, will not be tolerated or rewarded with a contract to supply labour."

Appeals procedure

The Government has been consulting on how far a new licensing requirement - introduced in the wake of the deaths of 21 Chinese cocklepickers in Morecambe Bay in February 2004 - should extend.

Today it said that licences would not be needed by those supplying labour to retailers, caterers or wholesalers. Also excluded were short-term loans of workers between farms, supply of individual specialist farm workers and the supply of labour to process non-farm products that include an agricultural component, such as cosmetics.

Mr Knight also announced to Parliament regulations for an appeals procedure for gangmasters refused a licence or who have their licence withdrawn.

Paul Whitehouse, chairman of the GLA, said the licencing authority was "determined to make a difference."

"We shall help bona fide labour providers stay legal by driving out those who undercut them by exploiting workers, by mistreating them and exploit the public by not paying their taxes," he said.

He invited anyone with any questions about the licencing scheme to visit the GLA's website - see link above/right - or to call 0845 602 5020 for further information.