The Government has been called on to introduce licensing for car washes.

According to the Financial Times, Matthew Taylor, Interim Director of labour market enforcement is to propose that the licensing programme should be overseen by local authorities, with inspection costs covered by licence fees.

It has been reported that Mr Taylor said hand car washes should be licensed to combat the sector’s “endemic non-compliance” of minimum wage rules.

The FT reported that Mr Taylor said the call for tighter regulation “reflected the failure of voluntary measures to address a series of problems with hand car washes, including underpayment and other mistreatment of workers, health and safety failings and environmental problems.”

“This sector is endemically non-compliant and I cannot see any way to tackle that endemic non-compliance without a national licensing scheme,” Mr Taylor said. “I also believe that such a scheme would be relatively straightforward to introduce.”

In response, the Home Office is reported to have said it had already given law-enforcement bodies greater powers to investigate offences and prevent criminals from exploiting innocent victims.