Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2016 to Question 26319, what the total amount of arrears recovered by HM Revenue and Customs for non-compliance with the national minimum wage was in 2015-16; how many (a) workers and (b) employers those arrears were related to; and how many of those employers (i) received a financial penalty and (ii) have been named and shamed for that non-compliance.

Nick Boles

In 2015-16 the Government recovered almost £10.3m of arrears for over 58,000 workers, from 958 employers. 813 of these employers were issued with a Notice of Underpayment (NoU) and had to pay a penalty.

In 2015/16, the Government named 280 employers. However, not all cases are put forward for naming, in particular:

– Where an investigation commenced before the advent of the naming scheme.

– Where an employer self-corrected the arrears and paid back to workers.

– Where the arrears owed were £100 or less.

– Where a case is being considered for criminal prosecution.

Furthermore, employers are not named at the point when a NoU is issued. Under the National Minimum Wage regulations, employers have 28 days to appeal against an NoU. They then have a further 14 days to make representations to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills against being named. Some of the cases identified in 2015-16 will therefore be considered for naming in future rounds.