Millions of churchgoers are to be asked to investigate their local car wash as part of a scheme to expose slave labour.
They will be urged to report any suspicious behaviour or evidence of workers being abused when they take their car to be cleaned.
A mobile app supplied by the CofE will encourage churchgoers to report on a range of things they may see, including signs that people are living on the site, the presence of children working, and suspiciously cheap prices.
Churchgoers will be urged to report any suspicious behaviour or evidence of workers being abused when they take their car to be cleaned
Church members are also asked to give information on whether the car wash boss ‘appears over-controlling or intimidating’ and whether ‘the body language of workers appears fearful or withdrawn’.
The campaign, developed by the Church of England, yesterday won backing from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, and from the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols.
Archbishop Welby said: ‘Over the last few years we have learnt more about the evil of modern slavery and we have begun to understand how it is perpetrated in our communities in plain sight.
‘Through the Safe Car Wash App we now have a chance to help tackle this scourge which is damaging so many people’s lives.’
Cardinal Nichols said: ‘I welcome this very helpful and timely initiative in an area of real exploitation.
‘As we learn to see this example of forced labour and modern slavery in our midst, we will also become more aware of the presence of this evil scourge in other sectors in our neighbourhood.’
The car wash watch scheme is run by the Church of England’s Clewer Initiative, set up under the umbrella of the Archbishops’ Council, the CofE cabinet headed by Archbishop Welby, as a church campaign against modern slavery.
It estimates that more than six out of ten car washes – around 11,000 of the 18,000 or more thought to be working in England – are unregulated. Complaints over slave labour conditions have often involved Albanian migrants who do not enjoy EU rights to live and work in Britain.
Some prominent criminal slave labour cases have featured gang bosses from a traveller background who have exploited homeless and vulnerable workers.
Rogue car washes are likely to be outlaw operations whose bosses dodge taxes as well as the basic rules that govern businesses, such as paying the minimum wage and keeping proper employment and pay records.

It comes as part of a Church of England scheme to help victims of slave labour (file image)
For this reason people using car washes are asked by the churches to check whether they can pay through electronic banking systems as well as by cash, and whether or not the car wash offers its customers receipts.
The Church of England Bishop of Derby, the Right Reverend Alastair Redfern, said: ‘It is shocking that an act as simple as having one’s car washed can help perpetuate the human misery involved with modern slavery.
‘This practice, and our indifference to it, needs to be challenged and reversed.’
Bishop Redfern said the campaign ‘is looking to mobilise the Church’s grass roots presence in an unprecedented intelligence gathering exercise to better understand this problem’.
He added that information provided by people using the Safe Car Wash App ‘will help the police and other agencies calibrate their responses accordingly’.
The Clewer Initiative said: ‘The more people that use the mobile app the better quality intelligence we will be able to provide to the police and the greater the chance that perpetrators will be prosecuted and victims rescued.’