The Employment Rights Act created a new enforcement body. Here is what the Fair Work Agency is, what it does, and what it changes for employers in practice.
The Fair Work Agency is a state enforcement body for employment rights, established in April 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025. Its purpose is to bring together, under one roof, enforcement functions that were previously spread across separate bodies — creating a single, more visible point of enforcement for a range of employment rights.
Enforcement of employment rights in the UK had been fragmented across different agencies, which made it harder for workers to seek redress and for the state to act consistently. Consolidating those functions into one agency is intended to make enforcement simpler and stronger — part of the same reform programme as the wider Employment Rights Act changes.
For employers, the practical message is that enforcement is becoming more joined-up, arriving at the same time as a stream of new obligations through 2026 and 2027. That raises the value of being able to demonstrate compliance rather than assert it: clear contracts and policies, accurate pay and holiday records, right to work evidence, and delivered training. The best preparation is not a single action but keeping your records and evidence current as a matter of routine.
The Fair Work Agency consolidates enforcement functions that previously sat in separate bodies — such as national minimum-wage enforcement, employment-agency standards, and the labour-market/gangmasters enforcement that tackled labour exploitation — and is expected to take on further areas such as holiday pay and statutory sick pay enforcement over time. Rather than a worker or the state navigating several agencies, there is intended to be a single enforcement authority for a broad set of employment rights.1
As a state enforcement body, the Agency is expected to be able to inspect, require records and information, investigate suspected breaches, and use enforcement notices and civil penalties where employers fall short — the detail of its powers being set through the Act and supporting regulations. The practical point for a compliant employer is simple: if asked, you should be able to produce the records that show you met your obligations.
The Agency does not replace the employment tribunal (where individuals bring claims) or Acas (which conciliates and advises). It sits alongside them as the state enforcement arm — pursuing breaches proactively rather than waiting for an individual claim. An employer could therefore encounter all three: Acas conciliation, a tribunal claim, and Agency enforcement, each answered better by good records.
There is no need to treat the Agency as a threat if your house is in order. Readiness means the everyday basics: correct pay and holiday records, valid right to work evidence, current contracts and policies, and proof that required training was delivered — all retained for the right period and quick to produce. That is a records-and-evidence discipline, not a one-off task.
The Fair Work Agency does not exist in isolation — it is the enforcement side of the Employment Rights Act 2025, whose substantive changes are landing across 2026 and 2027. Understanding the enforcement backdrop is part of understanding why the record-keeping duties matter.
Before the Agency, a worker underpaid the minimum wage, denied holiday pay and mistreated by a labour provider might have had to deal with three different bodies — and none had the full picture. That fragmentation made enforcement slow and patchy, and let poor practice fall between the cracks. Consolidating those functions is meant to make enforcement faster, more consistent and harder to evade, which is good for compliant employers and bad for those cutting corners.
While the detail of its powers is being set through regulations, a state enforcement body of this kind typically works by requesting records and information, following up complaints or intelligence, and, where it finds a breach, issuing notices or penalties and requiring the employer to put things right. For an employer, the moment of truth is producing the records — pay, holiday, right to work, contracts — that show the obligation was met. If the records exist and are in order, an enquiry is an inconvenience; if they do not, it is a problem.
The everyday records that answer most enforcement questions are the ones covered on our employment records guide: correct and timely pay, six-year holiday records, valid right to work evidence, current contracts and policies, and proof of required training. Keeping those current as a routine — not scrambling when contacted — is the whole of practical readiness.
If you are contacted, the worst response is an unevidenced one. A calm, compliant employer acknowledges the request, identifies exactly what is being asked about, and produces the relevant records — pay, holiday, right to work, contracts, the policy and training behind an issue — promptly and completely. Cooperation and a clear evidence trail are what turn an enquiry into a routine check rather than an escalation; take advice where a specific allegation is serious.
The Agency is one part of a wider tightening of labour-market compliance arriving together: the 1 October 2026 right to work expansion into subcontractors and labour supply, umbrella-company regulation coming in 2027, and the Employment Rights Act changes themselves. The common message to employers is consistency and evidence across the whole workforce — employees, workers and contractors alike — which is where holding one connected compliance record pays off.
The Fair Work Agency is new, and both its remit and its operational reach are expected to expand over time as functions transfer in and supporting regulations are made. That means the sensible posture for employers is not a one-off reaction to its launch, but keeping an eye on the guidance it issues and maintaining the underlying records so that whatever the Agency focuses on next, your evidence is already in order. Treat it as a permanent feature of the enforcement landscape rather than a passing announcement.
Complys keeps the evidence that supports employment compliance — contracts, policies, the records you must retain, training and worker documents — current and producible, with reminders. It does not give legal advice, represent you, or deal with the Fair Work Agency; it makes sure that if you need to show your compliance, the records are there. See employment compliance software and employment records employers must keep.
1 General information, not legal advice; confirm the current position against government guidance. Source: Acas — Employment Rights Act 2025. Reviewed 26 September 2026.
