The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) has made ‘good progress’ in implementing better regulation principles, claims a new report from the Better Regulation Executive.

The report, part of a series of reviews of national regulators, measures the GLA against principles of effective regulation set out by Philip Hampton in 2005.

The report found that the GLA:

• has had an impressive impact in improving the working conditions for some vulnerable workers;
• is  a learning organisation that is open and responsive to external challenge; and
• has been effective in building consensus on the best regulatory solutions amongst a diverse set of stakeholders.

Some issues were earmarked for the GLA in order to improve its performance further, including working with a wider range of partners to improve its intelligence gathering.

The report acknowledged that the GLA had built strong relationships with HM Revenue, Customs and the Police but recommend that the GLA explore other potential sources of information from the agricultural sector as well as clarifying its decision making process in licensing cases, to help stakeholders understand how better to comply and avoid prosecution.