The Fair Work Agency: A Single Enforcement Body for UK Workers

What Is the Fair Work Agency?

The Fair Work Agency (FWA) is a new statutory enforcement body created by the Employment Rights Act 2025. It became operational on 7 April 2026 and consolidates several previously separate regulators into a single authority covering the most commonly breached workplace rights in the United Kingdom.

Before the FWA, enforcement was split across HMRC's National Minimum Wage team, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS). Workers often did not know where to turn, and unscrupulous employers exploited the gaps. The FWA is the government's response to that fragmentation.

What It Covers

The Fair Work Agency takes on enforcement responsibility for:

• National Minimum Wage
  Including the National Living Wage and youth rates
• Holiday pay
  Statutory paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations
• Statutory Sick Pay
  From day one, following the April 2026 reforms
• Agency worker regulations
  Including pay parity and the abolition of pay-between-assignments contracts
• Modern slavery and labour exploitation
  Powers inherited from the GLAA
• Employment agency standards
  Powers inherited from the EAS Inspectorate

Unfair dismissal, discrimination, and most contract disputes remain matters for the Employment Tribunal, not the FWA.

Its Powers

A meaningful enforcement toolkit

• Investigate suspected breaches without a worker complaint
• Enter premises and require the production of records
• Issue notices of underpayment with financial penalties
• Recover unpaid wages and holiday pay on behalf of workers
• Bring criminal prosecutions in serious cases
• Maintain a public register of non-compliant employers

The agency can act on intelligence from any source, including anonymous tips. Workers are not required to put their name to a complaint for the FWA to investigate.

How to Report a Breach

If you believe your employer is underpaying you, denying you holiday pay or sick pay, or breaching agency worker rules, you can report it to the Fair Work Agency directly. Reports can be made anonymously, and it is unlawful for an employer to dismiss you or subject you to detriment for raising a concern.

Keep a paper trail

Before reporting, save copies of payslips, contracts, rota records, and any written communications about pay or hours. Belonge's evidence vault is designed for exactly this.

What Changes for Workers

In practical terms, three things change:

• One door, not five
  A single body to contact for the most common pay and hours breaches.
• Stronger deterrence
  Higher penalties and a public register raise the cost of non-compliance for employers.
• Wages recovered for you
  In many cases the FWA can recover unpaid wages without you needing to bring a tribunal claim.

Unpaid tribunal awards

An employee whose employer has not paid an employment tribunal award can apply to the Fair Work Agency for help. The employee can apply once 42 days have passed since the tribunal judgment, or once the payment date in an ACAS COT3 agreement has passed.

The Fair Work Agency can contact the employer and issue a warning notice. If the employer does not respond within 28 days, the Fair Work Agency may issue a financial penalty of 50% of the unpaid award, with a minimum of £100 and a maximum of £5,000. The employer pays the penalty to the government, not to the employee. The employee can also ask for the employer to be named on a list of employers who have not paid tribunal awards, and the government may publish this list on GOV.UK.