Oral Answers to Questions

Christian Matheson Excerpts

Monday 8th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend and I have spoken about this previously, and I very much recognise the pressures experienced in his constituency. Obviously we have had accommodation pressures throughout the pandemic, and we are implementing a recovery programme, with which he is familiar. Within that, we are looking to accelerate, where we can and in a covid-compliant way, working with Public Health England and all the relevant organisations that he is familiar with, the movement of people out of contingency accommodation and into much more dispersed accommodation across the UK.

[Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab) [V]]

The Home Secretary must have seen the survey by the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers of attacks on shop workers in 2020. Of the 2,700 surveyed, 88% had suffered verbal abuse, 61% had been threatened by a customer and 9% had been attacked. When will the Government bring forward legislation to protect shop workers, who are in the frontline in combating this virus by providing so much support to us?

[Priti Patel]

The hon. Gentleman will know my very strong views on this—I have spoken about it previously. Last year when the pandemic started, we saw the most appalling abuse and attacks on shop workers. We are working with colleagues in Government, so please let me give the hon. Gentleman my assurance on that. This type of violence and abuse should never, ever be tolerated at all, and we will also continue to work with employers to ensure that they are doing everything possible to protect shop workers—their employees.