What do you really see when you visit hand carwashes in Britain? Exploited workers and criminality

‘Why does the sector rank as one of the most problematic in terms of labour exploitation and other forms of criminality?’ Photograph: Mark Richardson/Alamy

What’s the reality of your local hand carwash? Would you be surprised if it was exploiting its workers, discharging effluent illegally or not paying business rates? Statistically, at least one or all of these could be happening at an estimated 5,000-plus sites across the UK.

Visiting these sites, you are often presented with workers dressed in tracksuit bottoms and hoodies regardless of the weather, with the (infrequent) wearing of wellies being the only concession to PPE. Closer inspection will probably show filthy toilets and cold, chaotic “rest areas’’ that workers share with chemicals and other detritus.