Margaret BeelsOBE is a British civil servant and current Director of Labour Market Enforcement. In her role,she oversees the UK's three main labour market enforcement bodies:The Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate (part of the Department for Business and Trade),the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) as well as HMRC's national minimum wage team.[1]
Beels started her career in the Department of Energy,where she played a key role in the privatisation of the electricity industry in England and Wales in the late 1980s,before becoming Head of Compliance at British Gas. In July 2011,Beels was appointed as Chair of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority,the predecessor of the GLAA. Beels played a role in the GLA's move from Defra to the Home Office and was also involved in the creation of the GLAA,which expanded the agency's powers to include investigations into forced and compulsory across the whole employment market.
Views
Beels supported a pledge made in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto to fuse the UK's three labour market watchdogs into a single enforcement body. The plan was later shelved by Grant Shapps,at the time business secretary.
In February of 2023,Beels expressed concern about the limited resources available to her as Director of Labour Market Enforcement,explaining that the UK only had a quarter of the number of labour market inspectors would be recommended by the International Labour Organization. She also lamented a lack of awareness about UK labour market enforcement bodies among vulnerable workers,saying that those affected "probably don't have the foggiest who we are".[2]
In January 2025,Beels called on the government to take urgent action on combatting false self-employment. She openly critized the government's hesitancy,saying that "you can consult until the cows come home,but sometimes government just needs to take decisions".[3]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
