Tag: Parliamentary Question

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-06-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many complaints have been made against employers registered in (a) Washington and Sunderland West constituency, (b) the Sunderland local authority area and (c) the North East region for paying employees less than the National Minimum Wage in each of the last three years.

Mr David Gauke

The Government takes the enforcement of NMW very seriously and HMRC enforces the national minimum wage legislation on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and has done so since the introduction of NMW in April 1999. It does that by investigating all complaints made about employers suspected of not paying the minimum wage, and carrying out targeted enforcement where it identifies a high risk of non-payment of NMW across the whole of the UK.

HMRC does not capture complaints or the outcomes of its investigations by reference to Government regions, constituencies or county. Its management information relates to the work of teams who are multi-located. Additionally, because it resources to risk, work relating to a specific geographical area is not always done by the NMW team based in that area.

Prior to 6 April 2009, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) issued penalty notices to those employers who failed to comply with an enforcement notice, within 28 days. A new enforcement regime, introduced in April 2009, saw the introduction of automatic penalties for employers who are found to have underpaid their workers.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave the hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry) on 6 May 2014 contained in Official Report column 110W which gives the number of completed inspections and number of non-compliant cases across the UK in the financial years 2009/10 to 2013/14.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-06-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what targets his Department has for increasing diversity; and what progress has been made on meeting those targets in the last year.

Andrea Leadsom

In common with other government departments the Treasury has diversity targets for its workforce (gender, ethnicity and disability), monitors progress and implements diversity initiatives where appropriate.

HM Treasury diversity targets for its Senior Civil Service (SCS)

Group	Target
Women	42 %
BME	5%
Disability	5%

HM Treasury’s diversity targets for its employees below the SCS

Group	Target
Women Range E	50%
Women Range D	50%
BME Range E	14%
BME Range D	18%
Disability Range E	6%
Disability Range D	8%

On progress against the targets the Treasury publishes information on the proportion of its employees by gender, ethnicity and disability by each Civil Service pay scale. The most recent information, March 2013, is in HM Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts 2012-13, page 43, available on the Treasury’s external website.

The March 2014 data will be published in the Annual Report and Accounts 2014 in due course

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-06-10.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what proportion of staff within his Office who have been dismissed following formal disciplinary proceedings in each of the last five financial years classed themselves as white British.

Mr Nick Clegg

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by My Rt Hon Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office today.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2014-06-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what consideration his Department gives to the diversity policies and records of businesses or other organisations when considering their bid for commercial contracts or grants.

Mr David Lidington

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, my right hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (Mr Maude), on 16 June 2014, Official Report, column 434W.