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 trends in the level of workers in (a) hospitality and (b) retail on high streets.

We are aware of elevated levels of vacancies in the hospitality and retail sectors, as with other sectors.

Both the Retail Sector Council and Hospitality Sector Council continue to work on the strategic issues facing businesses, including jobs and skills. The Retail Sector Council has identified skills and lifelong learning as a key priority and the Hospitality Strategy focuses on jobs and skills as a way to build resilience across the sector.