APPG for the UK Cleaning and Hygiene Industry

With the support of a sizeable number of MPs from all the major political parties and members of The House of Lords,  an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Cleaning and Hygiene Industry was inaugurated in February 2021.

The group exists to promote the critical importance of the cleaning and hygiene industry to all sectors and the people of the United Kingdom.

The APPG is operated by MPs and members of the House of Lords.  The British Cleaning Council (BBC) is the secretariat for APPG,  and brings together interested parties within a range of steering groups focused on the industry's concerns and strategic priorities.

The first meeting of the newly formed APPG took place in late April, opened by the Chair Nigel Mills, MP (Amber Valley), and facilitated by Stephen Kerr, MSP (Central Scotland), who was at one time sales leader for Kimberly-Clark in The UK.

The meeting covered:

• The importance of communication in restoring the public’s confidence post-pandemic.
  
  
• The need for improved labelling so the public can differentiate between effective hand gels and those being produced by unscrupulous pop-up companies that don’t protect from pathogens.
  
  
• The need for the public to continue to behave responsibly with regards to personal hygiene and social distancing in order to reassure others that public buildings are safe to visit and to prevent future Coronavirus spikes.
  
  
• How cleaning continues to be vital in preventing the spread of the virus, despite claims to the contrary.
  
  
• Key things learnt during the pandemic, such as the importance of the role played by the cleaning and hygiene sector and its workforce during the pandemic, and how they deserve to be fully recognised.
  
  
• The need for further education and training for cleaning and hygiene personnel.
  
  
• The role of innovation in developing products that enable the demand for higher standards of cleaning to be met.

Commenting upon the inaugural meeting BBC Chairman, Paul Thrupp, hailed it as  a "great success", and remarking further that:

"It has helped raise the profile of the sector among Parliamentarians and give them an idea of the importance of our work to the UK’s recovery from the virus.

We were pleased to see a number of Parliamentarians in attendance. They were very interested in finding out more about the industry’s work and there were several questions. Attendees now know about and understand the cleaning and hygiene sector much better. Before the APPG was established, it was much harder for the sector to reach out to MPs in this way.

But the meeting was only a first step on the journey and there is a lot more to be done. There is a huge amount of preparatory work going on behind the scenes on key APPG priorities. When this work is complete, we will be able to put forward concrete proposals for the APPG to consider.”