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.

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.