Speeches

Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effects of confidentiality agreements between employers not paying the national minimum wage and their employees challenging that non-payment on the numbers of people coming forward to make a complaint to ACAS.

Nick Boles

Final approved answer for 2016/02785

No assessment has been made on the impact of confidentiality agreements on the identification of National Minimum Wage (NMW) non-compliance.

Confidentiality is an important protection for workers who wish to make a NMW complaint. If any worker is concerned they have not received what they are entitled to they should contact the ACAS helpline on 0300 123 1100 for free and confidential advice. HMRC follow up every complaint referred to them by Acas and compliance officers can investigate without knowledge of the complainant’s identity. In addition to complaint-led work HMRC investigate employers using third-party intelligence and risk-based targeted enforcement in sectors and areas where there is a higher risk of workers being paid below the NMW.

The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break NMW law. Between April 2015 and November 2015 HMRC took action against over 500 businesses, identifying over £8 million for 46,000 workers. This is already the largest amount of arrears identified in any single year since the introduction of the NMW.

Building on existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW including higher penalties, a dedicated HMRC team to tackle the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance and additional funding for HMRC from April 2016. We have also increased communications so that working people can access support to make complaints in confidence if needed

Table 1: NMW enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline by trade sector, 2009/10 to 2014/15.

Trade Sector

2009/103

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

Activities of households as employers

20

20

40

20

20

10

Admin/Office work

2,530

4,410

3,910

2,950

3,310

2,390

Agriculture and related activities

140

100

120

100

110

100

Cleaning services

440

400

350

320

420

320

Construction and related trades

1,350

1,290

1,050

760

1,010

810

Education and teaching

270

370

350

300

540

450

Food processing and packaging

90

40

50

20

30

30

Hairdressing

1,670

1,520

1,360

930

1,040

730

Health, social work and child care

1,590

1,750

1,590

1,430

2,090

1,930

Hospitality

1,880

1,580

1,560

1,400

1,780

1,340

Information technology and communication

150

170

180

120

240

150

Modelling, entertainment, recreation

90

90

110

80

160

50

Other manufacturing

240

200

150

140

140

120

Security services

240

170

140

120

150

110

Shellfish gathering

Taxi/minicab services

60

40

30

30

30

20

Textiles

30

10

20

20

80

30

Training Provider

70

70

Transport (other than Taxi/mini-cab)

350

380

280

270

440

260

Warehousing, storage and distribution

490

440

420

340

360

310

Wholesale and retail trade

1,580

1,560

1,550

1,150

1,470

930

Other

4,980

3,880

2,590

1,980

2,780

2,210

Not Known

3,580

2,190

5,020

5,350

5,210

7,180

Total

21,700

20,600

20,900

17,800

21,500

19,500

Source: Pay and Workers Rights Helpline and the Acas Helpline

Notes:

  1. Calls to the helpline are in part driven by NMW policy announcements and communications activity.
  2. Sector level figures are rounded to the nearest 10, totals are rounded to the nearest 100.
  3. Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2009/10 as the Helpline opened in May 2009.

Since the 1st April 2015, the Acas Helpline has, in addition to its usual services, been answering queries previously handled by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.

Provisional in-year data for 2015/16 show there have been 9,800 queries relating to NMW legislation to the Acas Helpline and 3,700 queries relating to non-payment/deductions from NMW. Information on the number of NMW enquiries by trade sector is not collected on a comparable basis as Acas do not ask callers to disclose information about the sector worked in. Therefore, Acas only record this information when a caller chooses to provide it.

Table 1: The number of NMW related calls received by Acas, 2011/12 to 2015/16.

Query topic

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/164

NMW

4,400

3,800

3,800

4,400

9,800

Non-Payment/Deductions from NMW

2,000

2,500

2,900

3,100

3,700

Source: Acas

Notes

  1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
  2. One call may be counted as both a ‘NMW’ and ‘Non-payment/Deductions from NMW’ issue. A caller may enquire about the NMW rates and then raise a NMW underpayment issue therefore these categories should not be added together as it will involve double counting.
  3. For years earlier than 2015/16, a proportion of calls would have been referred to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.
  4. Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2015/16 which covers April 2015 to January 2016, the latest period for which information is available.