In her new governmental role, Beels is responsible for setting priorities for the following enforcement bodies:
•    Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS)
•    Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA)
•    HMRC National Minimum Wage (HMRC-NMW)

The director will set a strategy and create an intelligence hub enabling data sharing between the director, enforcement bodies and other bodies with intelligence.

Beels became chair of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) in July 2011. The GLA was formed in 2006 following the Morecambe Bay tragedy in which 23 Chinese cockle pickers were drowned. It was set up to run a statutory licensing scheme, which upholds the rights of temporary workers in agriculture, horticulture food packing and shell fishing.

From 2014 to 2016 she was involved in GLA’s move from being sponsored by Defra to sponsorship by the Home Office and then, in the transformation of the GLA into the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), with the expansion of its powers to include the investigation, across the whole labour market, into forced and compulsory labour as defined in the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Beels was awarded an OBE in the New Years’ Honours in 2020 for services to modern slavery and labour exploitation.

Her career began in the Department of Energy. From 1987 to 1990 she played a key role in delivering the privatisation of the electricity industry in England and Wales. Margaret spent four years running the electricity market before joining British Gas as head of compliance.

When British Gas demerged, she joined Centrica and became director of Scottish Gas.

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