Draft Employment Rights Act 2025 (Investigatory Powers) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2026

On 18 March 2026, MPs voted by 368 to 107 to approve the draft Employment Rights Act 2025 (Investigatory Powers) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2026. The regulations update the statutory references in the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 so that the new Fair Work Agency inherits the communications data powers previously held by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority when the new agency becomes operational in April 2026. The vote matters because it clears the way for the Fair Work Agency to begin work with the investigatory tools it needs to pursue serious labour exploitation cases. The government presented the change as purely consequential: Parliament had already decided, through the Employment Rights Act 2025, to merge the GLAA's criminal enforcement functions into the new body, and this instrument simply updates the name in the relevant legislation so enforcement capability is not interrupted. Critics argued that while the GLAA's remit covered high-risk sectors such as agriculture and fishing, the Fair Work Agency covers every employer in the economy, meaning these surveillance-grade powers now apply far more broadly. The vote divided almost entirely on party lines. All 271 Labour MPs and 30 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted supported the regulations, as did 55 Liberal Democrats, 3 Plaid Cymru members, and 3 Greens. All 91 voting Conservatives opposed it, joined by 5 Reform UK and 5 Democratic Unionist Party members and 3 independents. The Conservative shadow minister, Dame Harriett Baldwin, explicitly invited Liberal Democrats to join her side, but the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, Sarah Olney, declined and restated her party's support for the Fair Work Agency throughout the Employment Rights Bill's passage. There were no recorded rebels on the Labour benches.