Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a Fit-to-Trade licensing scheme so that no garment factory could operate unless it was approved by labour enforcement agencies.
Answered by Paul Scully
BEIS officials, along with Home Office colleagues and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority have been engaging with the British Retail Consortium and the wider retail sector to understand the systemic issues that lead to non-compliance and what measures could be used to tackle them. Given the serious nature of the allegations in Leicester and the spectrum of issues and concerns, it is imperative that we have a strong evidence base to inform the options we are considering in order to protect vulnerable workers and drive-up standards.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to (a) tackle the payment of illegal wages to workers in parts of Leicester’s garment industry and (b) ensure those workers are (i) compensated and (ii) reimbursed.
Answered by Paul Scully
As a result of the allegations of labour exploitation in Leicester, a new multi-agency taskforce led by the GLAA has been set up to bring together the enforcement bodies to continue to work together to secure robust intelligence to enable appropriate enforcement activity. It consists of: HMRC National Minimum Wage; Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (BEIS); Leicestershire Police; National Crime Agency; Leicester City Council; Department for Work and Pensions and Immigration Enforcement (Home Office).
HMRC’s National Minimum Wage team are active participants in the Leicester Taskforce and are attending visits to textile businesses in Leicester. They have also set up a new dedicated team to investigate Leicester textile businesses and other potential non-compliance textile hotspots across the UK. Where appropriate, these cases will be investigated with HMRC tax colleagues and taskforce partners. While we cannot comment on individual cases, HMRC have a number of open investigations in the textiles industry in Leicester. Where non-compliance is found, they will take appropriate enforcement action. This can include issuing notices of underpayment, recovering arrears for workers, issuing penalties to employers and, in the most serious cases, prosecutions. Since 2012/13, HMRC have recovered over £215,000 in wage arrears for 411 textile workers in the UK and issued over £325,000 in corresponding penalties to employers.
HMRC are also undertaking outreach activities with local groups in Leicester designed to promote awareness of National Minimum Wage rights for workers, and support employers and agency partners in Leicester. This includes distributing multi-lingual advice leaflets for workers, writing directly to both textile workers and employers, and a bespoke webinar for textile sector employers.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what legal steps his Department has taken to (a) compensate workers and (b) ensure minimum wage compliance following the Levitt review of Boohoo wage practices.
Answered by Paul Scully
As a result of the allegations of labour exploitation in the textile industry in Leicester, a multi-agency taskforce led by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) has been set up to bring together the enforcement bodies to continue to work together to secure robust intelligence to enable appropriate enforcement activity. HMRC’s National Minimum Wage team are active participants in the Leicester Taskforce and are attending visits to textile business in Leicester. They have also set up a new dedicated team to investigate Leicester textile businesses and other potential non-compliance textile hotspots across the UK. HMRC are undertaking outreach activities with local groups in Leicester designed to promote awareness of National Minimum Wage rights for workers, and support employers and agency partners in Leicester. This includes distributing multi-lingual advice leaflets for workers, writing directly to both textile workers and employers, and a bespoke webinar for textile sector employers.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Home Secretary has written to Boohoo setting out her expectation that the company demonstrates long-term commitment to enhancing the protections for workers and preventing exploitation in its supply chains. The Home Secretary has said that she was deeply concerned by the allegations against Boohoo and expects the company to fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies and implement the commitments they have made after the Levitt Review. The GLAA has established a constructive working dialogue with Boohoo to help tackle labour exploitation in the wider textiles industry and they have subsequently begun providing information to help inform enforcement activity.
HMRC have a range of enforcement tools that they can use to tackle minimum wage offences, including issuing notices of underpayment, recovering arrears for workers, issuing penalties to employers and, in the most serious cases, prosecutions. While we cannot comment on individual cases, HMRC have a number of open investigations in the Leicester textiles sector and will take appropriate enforcement action where non-compliance is found. Since 2012/13, HMRC have recovered over £215,000 in wage arrears for 411 textile workers in the UK and issued over £325,000 in corresponding penalties to employers.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what representations he has received on bringing forward legislative proposals on textile and garment adjudication similar to the Groceries Code Adjudicator to regulate the purchasing practices of brands.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Groceries Code Adjudicator was established in 2013 to enforce the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (the Groceries Code). The Groceries Code was introduced to address unfair trading practices identified by the Competition Commission in a market investigation into the grocery retail sector in 2009. The competition authorities have not investigated similar supply chain issues in the textile and garment sectors.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he plans to take on workers’ rights following the conclusion of the Alison Levitt QC report into exploitation in Leicester’s garment industry.
Answered by Paul Scully
Exploiting vulnerable workers for commercial gain is despicable and we expect businesses to do all they can to tackle abuse and exploitation in their supply chains. The findings of this review are concerning and we expect Boohoo to continue to fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies in their ongoing investigations in Leicester.
In response to the allegations of labour market non-compliance in Leicester garment factories, a taskforce led by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority has been set up. The taskforce coordinates a multi-agency approach to enforcement activity, the gathering and sharing of intelligence and wider community engagement aimed at encouraging reporting and helping raise awareness of workers’ rights. It includes: HMRC National Minimum Wage; Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate; Leicestershire Police; National Crime Agency; Leicester City Council; Department for Work and Pensions and Immigration Enforcement. Where evidence of non-compliance is found, the enforcement bodies will take appropriate enforcement activity.
The Government is committed to improving enforcement of employment rights and following a consultation, we have announced our intention to create a single enforcement body. The single enforcement body will provide a clearer route for workers to raise a complaint and get support, enabling more coordinated enforcement action and the use of pooled intelligence to better target proactive enforcement.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that garment manufacturers in Leicester work with trade unions to set employee terms and conditions.
Answered by Paul Scully
We are deeply concerned by reports of illegal and unsafe working conditions for garment workers in Leicester.
Collective bargaining is largely a matter for individual employers, their employees and their trade unions. The Government encourages employers to engage with their workforce’s representatives, whether these be union or non-union representatives.
The Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and Leicester City Council, both members of the Taskforce that has been established in response to the allegations of labour abuse in Leicester, have engaged with the TUC on the issues in the garment trade. We are also working with industry through the Apparel and General Merchandise Public and Private Protocol, a partnership between enforcement bodies and industry partners – including the British Retail Consortium, UK Fashion and the Textile Association – aimed at tackling all forms of labour exploitation in the garment trade
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he has taken to ensure that businesses in the hospitality supply chain are able to access the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund.
Answered by Paul Scully
Under the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF), businesses in England that would have been in receipt of the Expanded Retail Discount (which covers retail, hospitality and leisure) on 11 March, with a rateable value of less than £51,000, will have been eligible for cash grants of up to £25,000 per property.
Eligibility for the RHLGF was therefore contingent on businesses being in scope of the Expanded Retail Discount Scheme for Business Rates, as set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-rates-retail-discount-guidance. This eligibility definition was agreed by Ministers as a way of ensuring that Local Authorities could target businesses at pace and ensure that the process of disbursing funding could proceed quickly.
As per the Expanded Retail Discount guidance, properties that will benefit from the relief will be occupied hereditaments that are wholly or mainly being used:
In order to qualify for the relief, the hereditament should be wholly or mainly being used for the qualifying purposes as outlined in the guidance. The guidance is not intended to be exhaustive and authorities should determine for themselves whether particular properties not listed are broadly similar in nature to those included within the guidance and, if so, to consider them eligible for the relief.
In addition, on?1 May,?the Government announced the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund. This scheme was intended to support small businesses?in some of the hardest hit sectors?that were previously outside the scope of the Small Business and Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Grant Funds.
Local authorities were responsible for defining the precise eligibility for this Fund?and?may choose to make payments to businesses based on local economic need,?subject to those businesses meeting the specific eligibility criteria.?Guidance for Local Authorities was published 13 May: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-business-support-grant-funding-guidance-for-businesses.
Businesses which are not eligible for or have not received grant funding should be able to benefit from other measures in the Government’s unprecedented package of support for business.?For further information please?visit:?https://www.gov.uk/business-coronavirus-support-finder