Do you need a GLAA licence? The boundary is not where people think
5 minute read · Updated 2026-09-13
Most recruitment needs no licence at all. Four sectors are different, and one of them catches people who never thought of themselves as being in it.
Who needs one
A licence is required to supply or use workers in:
- agriculture
- horticulture
- shellfish gathering
- the food and drink processing and packaging associated with them
That fourth line is the one to read twice. A warehouse role can be a food processing role. If your worker is packing sandwiches, sorting salad, filling bottles or handling produce inside a food factory, you may be inside the scheme even though the advert said "warehouse operative".
The authoritative page is What a gangmaster's licence is and who needs one, now published by the Fair Work Agency on gov.uk. Read it before your first placement in anything food related, not after. The old GLAA addresses still redirect, but a redirect is a thing somebody else maintains.
Why this one is not like the others
Operating without a licence where one is required is a criminal offence, not a civil penalty. So is using an unlicensed labour provider, which means your client is committing an offence by using you. That is why food manufacturers ask for the licence number before they ask for your rates.
The exemption that sometimes applies
There is an exemption for a business using a worker to provide a food processing or packaging service where all three of the following are true: it employs the worker itself, it owns or leases the equipment used, and it owns or leases the premises. All three, not any of them. It is aimed at the manufacturer, not at the agency supplying into it.
Who runs it now
Since 7 April 2026 the licensing function sits with the Fair Work Agency, alongside the enforcement work previously done by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate. One body, wider reach.
What the first licence costs
The fees were frozen from 2009 until 2025 and then raised in line with inflation, so older figures on the internet are well out of date. They are banded by turnover. A new labour provider with turnover under one million pounds is in the lowest band, and pays roughly £620 to apply and about £2,870 for the inspection. A first application pays both, so budget around three and a half thousand pounds rather than the fifteen hundred you may have seen quoted.
Renewals are the application fee again; the inspection fee falls due when you are inspected. Check the current numbers on the how to apply for or renew a licence page before you budget, because they move.
Do not assume permanent placements are outside it
It is tempting to think that introducing somebody who then becomes the factory's own employee is not "supplying labour" and therefore needs no licence. Do not build a business on that assumption. The scheme is about supplying workers into the regulated sectors, and the authority's own position is that the workers covered include permanent as well as temporary ones.
If you want to make one introduction into a food business before you are licensed, ring the Fair Work Agency, describe that exact arrangement, and write down the answer and the name of the person who gave it. That note costs nothing and it is the difference between a mistake and an offence.
Your client is committing an offence too
Using an unlicensed labour provider in a regulated sector is itself an offence. That is why a food manufacturer asks for your licence number before it asks for your rates, and why "we will sort the licence out later" ends the conversation rather than starting it.
Decide, and write the decision down
If you are going into these sectors, apply before the first placement. The process takes weeks and includes an inspection against the licensing standards, so it cannot be done in a hurry when a client offers you work on Monday.
If you are not, write that down as a decision and keep those sectors out. A one line note in your compliance file saying "we do not supply into agriculture or food processing, and we check the site before accepting a warehouse assignment" is worth having when somebody asks why you have no licence.
Before you rely on this
This is a guide, not legal advice, and it is free because the law behind it is free. Every source we used is linked in the text so you can read it yourself rather than take our word for it. Where a decision turns on your own circumstances, and two of them below do, pay a solicitor once. It is cheaper than the alternative.
We are a UK job board and we are building a recruitment arm of our own, so we are working through this list ourselves. If you spot something out of date, tell us and we will fix it and say when.