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Gangmasters Licensing (Exclusions) Regulations 2006

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Gangmasters Licensing (Exclusions) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/658) [30th Report from the Merits Committee]. The noble Baroness said: I shall speak also to the Gangmasters (Appeals) Regulations 2006 and the Gangmasters (Licensing Conditions) Rules 2006 because most of my points are general, although some are detailed. In its 30th Report, the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee noted its concern at the delay in bringing the new licensing system into force. I am also strongly concerned. When this matter was raised in a Private Member’s Bill, introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Carter, if my memory serves me correctly, some noble Lords wished to debate it in Committee but we were told that if we did so, it would not be possible to push the Bill through in time for it to be enacted. That was more than a year ago, and here we are looking at something that will not, in some cases, happen until 2007. I find that worrying. It beggars belief that portions of the regulations that follow from the Morecambe Bay disaster will not operate until April 2007. That disaster was the wellspring from which the Gangmasters Licensing Authority was generated in 2004. On 13 March this year, the noble Lord, Lord Bach, published a Written Statement foreshadowing the laying of the regulations that we are debating. That Statement surprised me on a couple of counts: first, he defined the boundaries as being not the supply of workers who are normally domiciled overseas, but simply the supply of labour for the agriculture and shellfish industries. Does that mean that these regulations could apply to someone who is UK-born and has always lived here? I thought that these regulations were to deal with people coming from overseas to take part in agriculture and horticulture as they historically have. I cannot see clarification on that in the regulations. The Gangmasters Licensing (Exclusions) Regulations define the seasonal agricultural workers scheme. I declare an interest as president of Concordia, one of the organisations that for the past 40 years has brought seasonal workers from overseas, many of whom, the Minister will be interested to hear, were agricultural students in their own countries in their own right, and one of whom went on to become the agriculture Minister in his own country. So we did do some good.