BCC to Create Cleaning Sector Parliamentary Group

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• BCC to Create Cleaning Sector Parliamentary Group

10 December 2020

The British Cleaning Council is sponsoring the creation of an All-Party Parliamentary Group to represent the cleaning and hygiene sector in the Houses of Parliament.

This will give a voice to the cleaning and hygiene industry within parliament, allowing it to influence discussions, debate and pose questions and to influence ministers and the government.

When an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) is created,  parliament needs to approve its establishment. The British Cleaning Council (BCC) hopes that this could happen early in 2021. The group would also elect its own chair and details of its membership will be confirmed later.

“Cleaning and hygiene operatives were once known as an invisible workforce but during the coronavirus pandemic and due to the BCC’s constant lobbying, there is now much more recognition of the industry and its operatives.”

–Paul Thrupp

Chair, BCC

 No Longer an “Invisible Workforce”

The BCC has been working to attract prominent MPs to join the APPG for the cleaning and hygiene Industry, particularly those who represent constituencies where cleaning and hygiene sector businesses are based, particularly SMEs.

It is working alongside Stephen Kerr, the former MP for Stirling, who knows the cleaning and hygiene industry well, as both a former Sales Director with Kimberly-Clark Professional before his election and as an unpaid Parliamentary Adviser to the Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers Association (CHSA) during his time as an MP.

Chair of the BCC, Paul Thrupp, said: “Cleaning and hygiene operatives were once known as an invisible workforce but during the coronavirus pandemic and due to the BCC’s constant lobbying, there is now much more recognition of the industry and its operatives.

“The creation of an APPG for the cleaning and hygiene industry is the next step in that process.

“Through it, we will ensure that MPs, ministers and the government are made aware of the huge size of this industry, its massive contribution to the economy and the vital role that cleaning and hygiene operatives have in protecting people’s health and safety, particularly as we recover from the pandemic.

“It will give the industry, the BCC and all our members a voice at the highest levels, helping to ensure that we have a say when decisions are made that affect us, at a time when we have never been so depended on or needed so much.”

Kerr added: “The APPG will make a massive difference by ensuring MPs are informed and aware of issues relating to the cleaning and hygiene sector.

“It is about MPs working together with the BCC to get the UK cleaning industry a fair hearing in Parliament and with ministers. Over the past five years, with Brexit and Covid, we have seen that it is essential for business to engage with politicians. 

“MPs need good information about business. When they make policy decisions which are detrimental to a particular business sector, it is usually because that business has not communicated with them, so they are not fully informed."

Picture: a photograph of the outside of the Houses of Parliament 

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 10 December 2020

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