Speeches by Madders.

“We have had some briefings from Unite, which has given a number of examples of where it has entered into agreements with employers in the hospitality sector, and quite a lot in Scotland. I am not quite sure if that is coincidence or just where they have been organised, but it has reached agreements with a number of emp…”

“Again, if you have a period when you can anticipate what the demand is going to be, you could, of course, put people on a fixed-term contract, could you not?”

“I just have one more question. In terms of that geographical spread, is that region, sub-regions, or is it down to particular postcodes?”

“Again, the use of the word “temporary” implies that you can put them on a fixed-term or temporary contract, so in terms of the argument about the 12-week reference period, there is a solution there if employers want to take it, is there not?”

“One would hope that in this situation you have a trade union on the other side of the negotiating table that you can engage with. In minimum wage enforcement, it is usually HMRC coming in retrospectively. Hopefully, that is not going to be an experience that is replicated.”

“Can I just unpack that a little bit? In my understanding, a season is about three months, which is about 12 weeks, so where is the difference there?”

“That is probably less than 12 weeks, though, given the calendar dates you have just provided us with.”

“I want to aim my questions mainly at the employers’ representatives at the moment, just to dig a little bit more into the issue of the 12-week reference period. At the moment, we have the agency worker regulations, which have been in place for 16 years and which also use a 12-week reference period. Is there a particula…”

“You would argue that there is a level of coherence there in terms of priorities.”

“Will it be a sector-based approach?”

“That is a fair point. A lot of employers will engage practically, but there are always those who are belligerent and hostile to recognition. One that this Committee is aware of is Amazon. Figures from the United States Department of Labor showed that it spent $26 million in 2025 on anti-union consultants. That approach…”

“Are there any other comments from any of the panel members on that particular point about enforcement?”

“What is to stop your members employing people during seasonal peaks on fixed-term contracts?”

“Could I just come back to you, Mr Sheen, on this Christmas peak? You said that this tends to be in November and December. Is that right?”

“You may have just answered this, but it is just about the strategic steer. Are you comfortable that it is a realistic set of objectives? Is there anything in it where you are going, “That is a bit much”, or are you pretty comfortable with where it is landed?”

“The DLME-instigated report on working lives was really quite illuminating in terms of the volume of the potential infringements of rights. A lot of it was wages-related, but there were quite a lot of other sectors. It goes into the millions in terms of potential infringements. Is that an evidence base that you are usin…”

“There is a midpoint, is there not, which says that there are parts of our national infrastructure where it might be wise for us not to be exposed to the ability for China to receive signals transmitted from the UK on a whole range of topics. What is the Government’s position on tackling that?”

“This is a question for Lewis. What do you see as the Government’s actual priorities within the strategy or strategies, as you want to present it?”

“One of the things we have had suggested to us in our evidence is that sometimes, when you are trying to develop this relationship with China, it jeopardises some of the relationships with other countries. Do you feel that is a risk that we face? Is that a fair criticism?”

“You keep the same level of regulation, but you can spend an awful lot less time on it, if it is presented in the right way.”