Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2016 to Question 25610, on minimum wage, what the average call time was to the Pay and Work Rights and ACAS helplines; how many calls reached an ACAS operative; what definition of call was used in the data provided; and what translation facilities are available on the ACAS helpline.
Nick Boles
The average length of calls for the former Pay and Work Rights Helpline was 6 minutes 32 seconds. For the Acas Helpline which covers all call types, not just National Minimum Wage (NMW), the average length of calls is 7 minutes 54 seconds
Between April 2015 and January 2016, the latest period for which data is available, Acas have handled 768,849 calls on workplace relations and employment law.
The data collected by the Acas Helpline records the topics discussed by a caller. The figures show that there were 9,800 calls specifically related to NMW legislation and 3,700 where the caller was specifically concerned with non-payment or deductions related to the NMW. Some callers may have had queries about both subjects but due to the complexity of the data we cannot identify the number of callers that would fall into this category.
The Acas Helpline uses LanguageLine to allow real time translation with customers over the phone. Callers can request a translator at any stage in the call. A translator will join the call via a conference call, usually within seconds.
