Coronavirus: Leicester textile firms face enforcement action after safety breaches

A number of textile firms in Leicester inspected for health and safety breaches since lockdown have faced action, it has been confirmed.

Concerns about working conditions in the city's textile factories have grown in recent weeks.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said it had carried out 51 visits between 1 May and 20 July.

These had led to nine enforcement notices, three of which were concerned with Covid-19 controls.

The issue was raised earlier in parliament.

In a parliamentary written answer to questions about the welfare of Leicester's garment workers, work and pensions minister Baroness Stedman-Scott said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had visited 34 businesses and imposed enforcement action at eight premises.

She added: "Further enforcement action is being considered where non-compliance with Covid-19 risk controls has been found."

The minister said HSE was prioritising spot checks in the textile industry and "will take enforcement action to secure compliance" with coronavirus risk controls.

The HSE later said it had newer figures which showed 24 spot checks targeted at the textile industry and 34 visits in response to concerns raised by workers or members of the public.

Three of the nine enforcement notices were classified as Improvement Notices for failure to apply adequate Covid-19 controls under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

However, the HSE described "high levels of compliance" with regulations and none of the breaches were serious enough to warrant prosecution.

Leicester's garment industry has been under a spotlight after reports staff at factories have been underpaid and unprotected from Covid-19.

Fashion chain Boohoo is investigating one of its suppliers after reports some workers were paid only £3.50 an hour.

The issue of public health has been heightened because the city was the first in the UK to be subjected to a local lockdown following a spike in infections last month.

A whistleblower told the BBC some factories had almost doubled their staffing to cope with the surge in online orders during lockdown.

The worker said firms that "maybe used to have 50 people working comfortably, now had 80 or 90 people in the same area".

They said there had been "no social distancing whatsoever in the factories", and there had been added pressure because "people were shopping from home and they needed the goods to be in".

Some factories in Leicester supply fast fashion chains such as Boohoo and Quiz.

Boohoo has said it is "shocked and appalled" by reports that workers had been paid as little as £3.50 per hour, way under the £8.72 national minimum wage for people over 25.

Quiz said it had suspended a supplier after claims that a factory in Leicester offered a worker just £3 an hour to make its clothes.

On Monday, more than 50 MPs and peers wrote to the home secretary urging her to do more to protect UK garment factory workers from exploitation.

There will be a partial easing of some restrictions in the lockdown area from Friday but pubs, restaurants, and hairdressers are among businesses that will remain shut.

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