RESPONSIBILITY for the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) has moved from Defra to the Home Office, with immediate effect.

Two years ago the GLA was instructed by the Government – through its Red Tape Challenge review – to reduce the bureaucratic burden on business and concentrate more on the most severe extremes of worker exploitation.

GLA CEO Paul Broadbent said: “In refocusing our efforts, we are uncovering more and more cases of vulnerable people being trafficked into the UK by organised criminals with the intention of making handsome but entirely unlawful and immoral profits.

“However, I stress this is not to the detriment of the civil regulatory powers we exercise, which we continue to carry out in equal measure.”

A spokesman for the Association of Labour Providers, said: “Alignment and joint working with the National Crime Agency will boost the organisation’s capacity to dismantle and disrupt serious organised crime and will increase its ability to identify and tackle human trafficking.”