Speeches by Madders.

“I start by referring the Chamber to my chairmanship of the leasehold and commonhold reform APPG, where I work closely with organisations such as the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership and the National Leasehold Campaign, to which I pay tribute. As we have heard, complaints from constituents about management companies and …”

“I thank my hon. Friend, the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, for recognising the work done not only by me, but by Peter Bottomley and Jim Fitzpatrick on the APPG. I was struck by a comment in the Committee’s report about the argument put forward by some freeholders that ground rents are…”

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“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mrs Barker. On the application of ASBIs, I noted in the equalities statement that according to a Department for Work and Pensions survey, in 2022-23, around 66% of those receiving legal aid had a disability. Some 40% had a mental health condition, and around 10% had some kind o…”

“Do you know roughly what proportion of new hires in hospitality are taken on in November and December time?”

“That would be your baseline for any 12-week reference period, so if this is going to be an issue for the sector, you would assume that there was a significant number of new hires during that period.”

“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?”

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

“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?”

“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?”

“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?”