Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visits his Department has made to car washes in Sheffield to investigate modern slavery in the last five years.

The Government takes reports of labour exploitation and illegal working practices very seriously, including in the car wash sector.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, as part of the annual “Police Powers and Procedures: Stop and search and arrests” statistical bulletin, available here: Stop and search and arrests, year ending March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Statistics on arrests for modern slavery in connection with labour sectors, such as car washes, are not systematically collected or recorded.

Statistics on modern slavery exploitation sub-types are not currently systematically collected by the National Referral Mechanism, and are only recorded under broad exploitation categories (for example, labour, criminal, sexual).

The Home Office funds the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), which has specially trained officers with police-style powers to prevent, detect and investigate serious labour exploitation across the entire economy in England and Wales.

Since 01 January 2018, the GLAA has recorded 27 intelligence reports linked to car washes in Sheffield.