To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the Responsible Car Wash Scheme on compliance and standards in the car washing industry.
Answered on
30 March 2023
The Government takes reports of labour exploitation and illegal working practices very seriously, including in the car wash sector. We remain committed to tackling modern slavery and will take full and robust enforcement action in such cases across all sectors.
The Home Office and enforcement bodies (such as the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority) have supported industry initiatives in this sector, including Home Office funding for pilots of the Responsible Car Wash Scheme. The RCWS assessed industry compliance across a wide range of criteria, which included labour laws but also areas such as planning permission and correct disposal of trade effluent. The Government is in the process of assessing how we can use the evaluations of the RCWS to support industry compliance across these varied areas.
The Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME) sets out a report of the scale and nature of labour exploitation in their annual strategy to ensure the three labour market enforcement bodies are targeting the highest-risk industries. The Home Office will continue to be guided by the annual strategy and target work on areas assessed most at-risk by the DLME, including the hand car wash sector.