14th Special Report - Hand car washes: Government Response to the Committee’s Tenth Report

This is the government's response, published 1 February 2019.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government agrees on the importance of effective regulation and accepts some recommendations, but prefers a voluntary pilot scheme to a compulsory trial licensing scheme and defends its civil approach to minimum wage enforcement.

• On guidance, the government agrees with the recommendation to update the pollution prevention guidance, and says the Environment Agency will update it for publication on GOV.UK "early next year" and direct planning departments in England to it.
• On supermarkets, the Environment Agency "has agreed to write to major supermarkets in 2019" about their responsibilities as landlords for hand car washes on their land.
• On licensing, the government "recognises that licensing can be a valuable tool" but believes a voluntary pilot approach is better than "a compulsory trial licensing scheme". It says the Responsible Car Wash Scheme will be evaluated.
• On minimum wage prosecutions, the government says "Prosecution is not necessarily the best approach in most cases". It refers potential criminal cases to the Crown Prosecution Service and applies civil sanctions to other cases. It will "carefully consider" any recommendations from the independent Modern Slavery Act review on the scope of section 54, which is due to report by 31 March 2019.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error