Margaret Beels

Margaret Beels is a British civil servant who serves as the United Kingdom's Director of Labour Market Enforcement. In this position, she is responsible for overseeing the Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate (part of the Department for Business and Trade), the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), and HM Revenue and Customs' National Minimum wage enforcement team.

Career Beels began her career at the Department of Energy, where she worked on the privatisation of the electricity industry in England and Wales during the late 1980s. She later joined British Gas as Head of Compliance and subsequently became Director of Scottish Gas at Centrica.

On 22 November 2021, the UK Government announced Beels' appointment as the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, responsible for setting the strategic direction for labour market enforcement bodies in England and Wales.

Views

Beels expressed support for the proposal in the UK Government's 2019 Conservative Party manifesto to consolidate the three existing labour market enforcement bodies into a single enforcement authority.

In January 2025, Beels urged the Government to take stronger action on false self-employment, telling a parliamentary committee that "you can probably consult until the cows come home … but it is about time to do something about it". She argued that extended delays in policymaking were undermining efforts to curb labour exploitation.