HCW0019

Written evidence submitted by DEFRA

Exploiting people for their labour, subjecting them to horrific conditions and denying them basic employment rights, is a form of abuse. The Government has made clear its commitment to protect workers from abuse and to crack down on employers who try and profit from exploiting vulnerable people.

In 2015, the Government introduced the world-leading landmark Modern Slavery Act to tackle slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour and human trafficking. The Act gives law enforcement agencies the tools to deal with offenders and provides enhanced protection for victims.  

The nature of labour exploitation continues to evolve, with a shift from abuses of employment regulation towards increased organised criminal activity. This means that sectors outside of the traditional agricultural and food packing sectors regulated by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) such as care, construction, hand car washes, nail bars are also at high risk of labour exploitation. The measures introduced by the Government through the Immigration Act 2016 were designed to help address this shift and included:

• the creation of the role of Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME) to bring strategic focus and co-ordination to labour market enforcement legislation. Professor, Sir David Metcalf was appointed to the role in January 2017;
• reforms to the GLAA, widening its remit, giving it new powers under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 to enable new officers, known as Labour Abuse Prevention Officers, to investigate labour market offences, including modern slavery offences across the entire economy; and
• new tools to deal with serious and persistent offenders through Labour Market Enforcement (LME) Undertakings and Orders. Breach of an LME order carries a two year prison sentence.

Labour exploitation in hand car washes has been the focus of increased law enforcement activity over the last 18 months. In recognition of the multiple risk factors associated with the provision of this service, from health and safety and environmental issues to compliance with employment law, law enforcement operations are conducted in partnership with a number of agencies, including Immigration Enforcement, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and local authorities. The GLAA has played a greater role in leading operations since it acquired its new PACE powers in April 2017.

As part of the development of the DLME’s annual labour market strategy, Ministers asked Sir David to look at the case for extending GLAA licensing to other high risk sectors. In his annual strategy for 2018/19, published on 9 May, Sir David proposed a number of recommendations to tackle non-compliance and labour exploitation, including a recommendation for pilot licensing in the hand car wash sector. Sir David recommended that the pilot should be led by the GLAA in partnership with other relevant bodies on a geographically limited basis. The Government is considering Sir David’s recommendations and will publish a response to the strategy later this year. Further details about the strategy and its recommendations can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/labour-market-enforcement-strategy-2018-to-2019

Section 1: Development of the Industry

How many hand car washes are currently in operation in the UK? How many people are employed by them? How have hand car washes developed over the past decade? What impact has this had upon the wider car wash industry?

Published Office of National Statistics (ONS) data and the presented UK Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes of Economic Activities are not sufficiently detailed to identify car wash businesses specifically. We are not aware of any robust number of car washes and therefore could not verify the estimates of between 10,000 – 20, 000 numbers quoted by the Committee.

It was however possible to identify the number of employee jobs with a Standard Occupation Classification code of 9236 (Vehicle valeters and cleaners) in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2017 (see link below). ASHE estimates there are 12,000 employee jobs held by this group in April 2017. This does not include self-employed workers.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14

Section 2: Environmental Impact

How does the environmental impact of hand car washes compare to that of automatic car washes?

Hand and automatic car washes have a similar potential to pollute watercourses if incorrectly connected to surface water drains.

For the most part automatic operations are well established and have pollution prevention measures in place. This may include water filtration, recirculation and water saving features. If waste wash water is discharged, it is generally connected to foul drainage. However they do use more energy.

Hand wash operations are often temporary in nature and set up without a proper understanding of pollution prevention requirements. They may occupy sites without any foul drainage and are therefore more likely to discharge untreated wash waters to the environment than automatic car washes.

What steps have been taken to reduce their environmental impact and use water more sustainably?

Where there is a noticeable impact on water quality where polluted surface water runs into a watercourse, the EA will work with the water and sewerage companies and local authorities, to trace and stop sources of pollution. It is not easy to identify the environmental impact from individual hand car washes in rivers and streams, as this is generally low and indistinguishable from other sources of pollution, such as from personal car washing and misconnections of washing machines, dishwashers etc.

In certain areas where it has identified pollution problems, the EA has undertaken pollution prevention campaigns to trace and stop discharges being made to surface water, including from hand car washes. For example the EA has carried out campaigns in Exeter and Coventry, where they became aware of a proliferation of hand car washing facilities.

The EA has also engaged with supermarkets nationally, giving advice on what they need to do to prevent pollution before allowing hand car washes on their car parks. As part of any campaign the EA point those they find causing problems to the relevant good practice and guidance. In the most serious cases the EA reserve the right to take enforcement action or sanctions against polluters. People are encouraged to report any concerns to the EA pollution hotline as the more evidence the EA gets, the easier it is for them to identify and target pollution hotspots and take the appropriate action.

Water use is generally low in hand car washes, however the local water supply company may give advice on water saving measures in water stressed areas.

What chemicals are used in hand and automatic car washes and in what quantities?

Chemicals/products used in hand and automatic car washes may include detergents, deodorisers, valeting products, degreasers, surfactants, waxes, polishes, tyre treatment substances, glass cleaning products and solvents. Other materials or contaminants arising from the activity include dirt, road salt, brake dust, traffic film residue, oil and fuel, grease and antifreeze.

The quantities of chemicals stored and used are low in most operations but the cumulative presence of chemical contaminants in wash waters may be large enough overall to impact the environment if discharged directly to watercourses. Mechanical washers normally comply with proper and installed drainage, discharging all effluents to a foul sewer system.  If wash water, including chemicals, is disposed to the foul sewer and to the sewage treatment system, then normally the sewage treatment process is sufficient to remove or degrade the contaminants and protect the environment.

How should they be disposed of?

Correct disposal of wash waters to sewer or waste collection means that there should be no releases to the environment. Any materials that cannot be disposed of to the foul sewer should be collected and disposed of through other waste disposal routes.

What are the effects of working with these chemicals on human health and the natural environment?

Health & Safety regulations and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) controls would apply. Under the COSHH regulations, if anyone (including members of the public) could be affected by a work activity involving hazardous substances, you must prevent them from being exposed to the substance or, if this is not reasonably possible, their exposure must be adequately controlled. Cleaning chemicals including detergents, deodorisers, valeting products, acidic alloy wheel cleaners, degreasers, surfactants, waxes, tyre treatment substances, and solvents should be used according to the manufacturers’ guidance to avoid harm to human health or to the environment. Published guidance is also available from the HSE website http://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/index.htm.

The EA is responsible for protecting water quality in the environment in England. Cumulatively, the impact from car washing detergents may contribute to a drop in the quality of animal and plant life in rivers if in sufficient concentrations and where there is low dilution by the receiving water course or river. This impact comes from a combination of sources such as personal car washing outside homes, misconnected washing machines and dishwashers and normal water run-off from the road, etc. Collectively this is known as ‘urban drainage’ and can cause a low level chronic impact or decreased environmental quality for local water bodies.

What regulations are hand car wash operators subject to regarding their impact on the environment and the use of chemicals?

For England and Wales, the principal water pollution offences are contained in regulation 38 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1154).

While it is an offence to discharge car wash water without an environmental permit, it would be very rare, if ever, that a car wash operator would wish to apply for one. This is because the advice would be to connect to a foul sewer or to recirculate wash waters so there is not a discharge. In following the advice it eliminates any risk to the environment and any need for a costly permit to be issued. This is the most effective and least bureaucratic way of minimising the low level of risk involved.

If a car wash operator did want to apply for a permit to discharge wash waters to the environment then they would need to put in place adequate treatment to reduce any contamination to acceptable levels. In most cases this would be prohibitively expensive and would not offer the best environmental solution. It would be very unlikely for the EA to issue such a permit when there are much better pollution prevention options available for the environment, the operator and the regulator.

Where the EA find car wash operators discharging to the environment the impact is usually very minor in nature and it is dealt with by giving advice and guidance to the operator for them to stop the discharge. In most cases the operator complies or chooses to cease trading if it is a temporary operation. The EA reserve the right to prosecute or apply civil sanctions if operators continue to commit an offence. Advice is normally followed and this has not been required so far for a hand car wash.

The EA also work closely with partner organisations and are a statutory consultee on all planning permissions.  If a planning application for change of use or new operation of a car wash is submitted, the EA provides comments regarding the appropriate drainage. These comments will be reflected in the planning conditions. Any breaches are regulated by Local Council Planning Enforcement Officers.

Who enforces these?

The relevant legislation involves enforcement by:

• Environment Agency of any illegal discharges to controlled waters or breach of any environmental permits issued to carry out a water discharge activity.
• Water Company Trade Effluent Inspectors of any Trade Effluent consent requirements where discharges are made to foul sewers.
• Local Council Planning Enforcement Officers of any breaches of planning conditions.
• Local Environmental Health Officers against statutory nuisance.

The Gov.uk website provides the 2016 Guidance about ‘Pollution prevention for businesses’, setting out what businesses and organisations should do at work to avoid pollution incidents, including the permissions needed to dispose of waste:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pollution-prevention-for-businesses

How effectively?

The Environment Agency take a risk based approach to investigating and regulating sites proportionate to the evidence and impact observed. From a water quality perspective, the number and impact of pollution incidents from hand car washes are low compared to other pollution sources.

The number of confirmed incidents recorded which refer to the term ‘car wash’ are shown in the table below. These are illustrated next to the water industry and agriculture sectors for comparison purposes and show the relative low risk, i.e. low frequency and low category, of pollution from car washes as a source of pollution. It is not possible without going into every incident record to say whether these come for ‘hand car washes’ and the data will include incidents from automatic car washes, householders and commercial premises as well as hand car washes. However for the same period 15% of unsubstantiated reports about car washes mention the term ‘hand car washes’. If applied to the confirmed data below and averaged over the 3 years, this would give roughly 11 confirmed incidents from hand car washes per year.

The evidence is that there are low numbers and low levels of pollution coming from hand car washes and that the regulatory options open to the EA to minimise the risks are adequate and that the EA use these powers to deal with any issues effectively.

What role should the owners of premises on which hand car washes are operated have in ensuring their environmental impact is minimised?

The operator of a car wash is responsible for what happens to the waste water from the business activities (‘trade effluent’). Site owners are not legally responsible for a polluting offence committed by the hand car wash, but they should manage their sites responsibly to minimise polluting activities. They should act on any advice the EA may give about a hand car wash operation on their site.

What legal duties are they under?

For England and Wales, the principal water pollution offences are contained in regulation 38 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (S.I. 2016/1154). There has been only 1 permit for car wash effluent issued in the last 5 years. This was issued in 2015 for a permanent jet wash facility and permits an overflow from a recirculation system during rainfall. The EA have received no other applications during this period and in most cases would advise the car wash to recirculate or connect to the foul sewer at the initial enquiry stage.

What further steps should be taken to minimise the environmental impact of car washes?

The EA has described the risk based approach to their advice, guidance and enforcement activities with hand car wash operations.  Operators should minimise the environmental impact of car washes by reusing or disposing of contaminated water to foul sewer or to combined drain if they’ve got permission from the water company.

How can run-off be managed most effectively?

Operators of hand wash or automatic car washes should manage run-off by containing and draining the wash waters, including any spray which might drift, and by directing the collected wash waters for appropriate treatment and disposal.

Are there less chemically intensive options available for car washes?

Operators can choose cleaning chemicals and detergents which are less chemically intensive and are less harmful to the environment, such as those which are biodegradable and phosphate-free.  Whilst these will still have some impact on the environment, they are easier to treat than the alternatives.

How can water usage be minimised?

Water usage can be minimised by using a wash water recycling system.  For example many static vehicle washing facilities can filter and re-use water which reduces the amount of wash water, saves cost and is more sustainable in the long term.

Section 3: Sustainable Employment Practices

What can the Government do to ensure that they meet their commitment to “decent work” under Sustainable Development Goal 8 in the hand car wash industry?

The UK is committed to delivering the Global Goals, and has a substantial body of work dedicated to achieving Decent Work for people throughout the world.

We are promoting the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprise and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights through funding the UK’s National Contact Point and Shift. These guidelines underpin our ability to achieve global goal 8.

In addition, the UK has provided support to the UN Global Compact, Ethical Trading Initiative, Workforce Disclosure Initiative and World benchmarking Alliance which all aim to promote decent work across the globe.

What proportion of hand car washes are thought to be exploiting workers? Is there a clear link to human trafficking?

There are many challenges in accurately quantifying the scale of labour exploitation and modern slavery as they are complex and often hidden crimes. Recent operational activity has highlighted that there can be worker exploitation in hand car washes. We do not have sufficient evidence to determine whether there is a direct link to human trafficking. Our indicators only provide a partial picture of the extent of the issues in the sector.

Data recorded by the Modern Slavery Police Transformation Unit, which brings together information about operational activity from police forces across the country, shows that since the Unit began recording in December 2016 there have a been a total of 1328 modern slavery operations (this includes live and closed operations), including:

• 86 modern slavery operations that explicitly state the involvement of labour exploitation in car washes;
• 37 live operations where the primary exploitation type is labour exploitation at a car wash; and
• 49 closed operations where the primary exploitation type is labour exploitation in a car wash

Data collected by the National Crime Agency across the UK shows that:

• there were 94 potential victims of modern slavery referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in 2017 that specifically referenced car wash exploitation. This represented four per cent of all potential victims of labour exploitation referred to the NRM in 2017.
• there were 73 potential victims of modern slavery referred to the National Referral Mechanism in 2016 that specifically referenced car wash exploitation.

It is important to note that the referral numbers detailed above include cases subsequently found not to be victims of modern slavery by the competent authority and reflect where car washes were identified by the first responder as the exploitation location at the point of referral.

Data collected by the GLAA, in England and Wales shows that since 1st May 2017 they have:

• received 178 referrals where there have been allegations of exploitation at hand car washes; and
• led 34 criminal investigations as a result of those referrals.

It is important to note that the referral numbers detailed above include cases where allegations of exploitation at car washes were made to the GLAA and no further action was taken by the GLAA due to cases being referred onto another agency, insufficient evidence of offences or potential victims found not to be victims of exploitation or modern slavery.

The Home Office recognises the importance of continuing to build the evidence on the nature and scale of modern slavery, including labour exploitation. The DLME is also responsible for developing an information hub for non-compliance in the labour market which will gather information from enforcement bodies and other partner agencies.  This will help to improve our understanding of the scale and nature of labour exploitation.

As part of the reforms to the National Referral Mechanism process (the UK’s system for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery) announced by the Government in October 2017, the Home Office is developing a new digital system to support the process. This will enable us to better capture and analyse data to aid prevention and law enforcement activity.

What is the cost to the public of unpaid taxes in the sector and of police investigations, safeguarding work and minimum wage enforcement?

In 2017/18, the Government provided funding to the police (£8.5m from the police transformation fund), the GLAA (£6.26m), HMRC (£25.3m) and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (£0.75m) to help tackle modern slavery and labour exploitation and non-compliance.  It is not possible to separate out the specific costs to the public in the car wash sector from the broader range of work these bodies do, as they deploy resource flexibly depending on the nature of the risk in different sectors.

In July 2017, HRMC published data on national minimum wage investigations by sector in the Government Evidence to the Low Pay Commission.  Hand car washes are not identified as a specific sector. The Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles’ sub- sector is the most closely aligned and may capture investigations related to hand car washes. Further information about NMW investigations can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-minimum-wage-government-evidence-to-the-low-pay-commission-on-compliance-and-enforcement-2017.

The Home Office and the Ministry of Justice also jointly fund the Adult Victims of Modern Slavery Care Contract, a national support service for potential victims in England and Wales. The contract is currently delivered through The Salvation Army and their network of subcontractors and is forecast to cost around £90million over the5 year duration of the contract.

How has the Modern Slavery Act 2015 worked in tackling the problem of slavery in the industry?

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 introduced a number of ground breaking measures that are helping to tackle modern slavery in hand car washes and other sectors, including:

• Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Orders and Slavery and Trafficking Risk Orders under Part 2 of the Act - These civil orders are designed to prevent slavery and human trafficking offences by an individual who has already committed offences or an individual who has not been convicted of offences, but there is a risk that the individual may commit an offence. The Act gives law enforcement bodies, including the GLAA powers to apply to the courts for these Orders.

• In 2017, Devon and Cornwall Police secured slavery and trafficking risk orders under the Act in respect of two defendants who were exploiting workers at a hand car wash in Exeter. Further details of the case can be found at: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/horrific-cramped-conditions-modern-day-10895982

• The role of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner - As the first Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Kevin Hyland has played a pivotal role in shining a spotlight on modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK and internationally and driving this country’s world-leading response to human-trafficking and modern slavery.

• The Commissioner announced on 29 March a new collaborative study with the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham and the UK’s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) which will look at labour exploitation in hand car washes. The study aims to analyse the sector so that we can better understand the nature of labour exploitation in hand car washes and how to tackle it.

• Transparency in supply chains – The UK is the first country to require businesses to report on the steps they have taken to tackle modern slavery. Under the provisions in the Act, all large businesses with a turnover of £36m or more are required to publish an annual transparency statement detailing the action they are taking to prevent modern slavery from occurring in their business and supply chains.

• Although hand car wash businesses are unlikely to reach the £36m turnover threshold, a number of hand car washes operate on the premises of large supermarkets. As a result of the legislation and work by the GLAA, major supermarkets, such as Tesco are now reporting on the risk of modern slavery in hand car washes and other franchise services operating on their premises as part of their transparency statements.

Devolved Administrations

Environmental policy is devolved.

Scotland

Scotland have been given the opportunity to contribute to this response.

Wales

There are no significant differences from England.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) produced a ‘Vehicle Wash Operators Guidance’ leaflet in 2011 advising operators how to dispose of any washing effluent based on the potential to pollute. The options in order of preference are:

1. Re-cycling without discharge.
2. Northern Ireland Water (formerly Water Service) foul sewer. Relevant permission must be obtained from NIW before making this connection.
3. Holding tank and disposal via a registered/licensed carrier to a consented treatment facility with the capacity to adequately treat the effluent prior to discharge.
4. Consent – this will only be considered either where detergents will not be used or where the effluent is going to a treatment system that has a separate nutrient supply (e.g. sewage) and has the ability to reduce the combined BOD to within consent limits.

Once a discharge consent has been issued, compliance assessment monitoring is normally carried out where the consent permits a maximum daily discharge of 5 cubic metres or more.  This approach to monitoring has been adopted to target resources in a cost effective way at those discharges which, because of their volume or composition, have the greatest pollution potential.

NIEA does not have any monitoring/inspection data for vehicle washing activity as there are only a limited number of consents which have been issued for vehicle washing activity, and none of these meet the volume threshold requirements for monitoring.

Under the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999, it is an offence to discharge trade or sewage effluent to waterways or to water in underground strata without the consent of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). This includes any discharge of vehicle washing effluent. However, this is only considered as a disposal option as a last resort.

June 2018