PRESS RELEASE: New Fair Work Agency risks becoming a ‘toothless watchdog’, experts warn

A new joint briefing from the Institute of Employment Rights (IER) warns that the Government’s new workplace watchdog, the Fair Work Agency, risks failing to deliver meaningful protections for workers unless urgent changes are made.

The briefing, authored by Professor David Whyte (Queen Mary University of London) and Professor Ruth Dukes (University of Glasgow) highlights longstanding weaknesses in the UK’s system of workplace enforcement and argues that the new Agency could repeat past failures without stronger powers and funding.

The Fair Work Agency is set to launch on 7 April, bringing together several existing enforcement bodies into a single organisation intended to improve compliance with employment law.

However, the report warns that:

• The Agency will operate within a weakened regulatory system, with funding for enforcement bodies reduced by at least 58% in real terms
• Workplace inspections and enforcement activity have fallen sharply over the past 15 years

There is currently no credible threat of unannounced inspections or prosecution for employers who break the law.

The increasing overlap between labour market enforcement and immigration control has discouraged vulnerable workers from reporting exploitation.

The authors argue that without significant reform, the new Agency risks becoming “another toothless watchdog”.

The briefing calls on the Government to:

• Ensure the Agency is properly funded, with ring-fenced resources to support its expanded remit.
• Introduce a robust inspection regime without advance warning to employers.
• Establish a credible threat of prosecution for non-compliance.
• Give trade unions a central role in enforcement, including the ability to bring cases to court.

Institute of Employment Rights Director James Harrison said:

“The government’s new Fair Work Agency must take into account the evidence base that has been assembled by our experts over many years. There are very clear steps that must be taken if the rights of workers and the role of trade unions in the workplace are to be strengthened by the new workplace watchdog. This briefing sets out those steps.”

Ruth Dukes, Professor of Labour Law at the University of Glasgow, said:

“Labour’s New Deal for Working People was clear in saying that any labour protections are only worth the paper they are written on if they are enforced. It’s high time that proper efforts were made by government to strengthen enforcement and ensure that workers’ rights are complied with.”

David Whyte, Professor of Socio-legal Studies at Queen Mary University of London, said:

“The history of workplace regulation in this country is one of weak enforcement, chronic underfunding and deference to big business. The Fair Work Agency must be given the powers and resources it needs, or it risks becoming just another toothless regulator.”

Notes to editors

• The Institute of Employment Right’s Briefing on the Fair Work Agency can be accessed here: https://www.ier.org.uk/publications/briefing-the-governments-fair-work-agency-risks-becoming-a-toothless-watchdog
• The IER is a think tank on employment rights and labour law. It has existed for over 35 years, with a mission to inform the debate around trade union rights and labour law by providing information, critical analysis, and policy ideas through our network of academics, researchers, and lawyers.
• The IER’s 35+ years of work culminated in 2016 with a ‘Manifesto for Labour Law’. This, and its ‘Rolling out the manifesto for labour law’ (also published by the Institute) are widely acknowledged as the blueprint for what eventually became the government’s Employment Rights Bill. As the originators of these policies, the IER is well placed to analyse the effectiveness and impact of the Employment Rights Act.
• The Fair Work Agency is due to launch on 7 April 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
• The Agency brings together the functions of existing labour market enforcement bodies into a single organisation.
• The briefing draws on extensive research into labour market enforcement and workplace regulation in the UK, including evidence of significant funding reductions and declining inspection activity over recent years.