Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-10-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Question 1 of the consultation, Tackling exploitation in the labour market, published by her Department and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in October 2015, what the legal definition is of organised labour market exploitation.

Karen Bradley

Exploitation of workers comes in many different forms. The definition of ‘labour market exploitation’ used in the consultation is not a legal definition. For the purposes of the consultation, the phrase is explained at paragraph 50 in the consultation as meaning “more than merely deliberate non-compliance”.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 92 of the consultation document entitled, Tackling Exploitation in the Labour Market, (a) how many prosecutions and (b) what penalties have been applied for each of the existing offences that are in the remit of the Director of Labour Market Enforcement.

Karen Bradley

The list of offences that will be in the remit of the Labour Market Enforcement Director are subject to public consultation. The following figures are available for prosecutions and penalties for offences that are being considered for inclusion in the Director’s remit.

There have been nine prosecutions relating to National Minimum Wage underpayment since the first prosecution took place in 2007. Criminal prosecution is reserved for the most serious cases. Penalties totalling over £3.9 million has been issued.

There were three prosecutions (one failed) for suspected breaches of Employment Agencies Standards (EAS) Regulations in 2013-14. Fines totalling £5,200 were issued and total compensation and costs awarded to workers was £6,041. Information on prosecutions prior to 2013/14 can be found in EAS Annual Reports online.

During 2013/14 and 2014/15, there were six and nine prosecutions respectively for offences contained within the Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004. Penalties included fines and custodial sentences for these and other non labour market offences.

The Modern Slavery Act offences, which could fall within the remit of the Director, came into force on 31st July 2015. Data is not yet available for those offences.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-25.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2015 to Question 16853, what responsibilities were allocated to the additional staff added to national minimum wage enforcement teams in 2015-16.

Greg Hands

The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.

Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage not only have to pay arrears of wages at current minimum wage rates but also face financial penalties of up to £20,000 per underpaid worker. A further increase in penalties will come into force in April 2016 and will increase the penalty percentage from 100% to 200% of the underpayments owed to each worker, up to the existing maximum.

The extra funding was allocated in two tranches. The first of £3 million has been used by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to recruit additional staff primarily into front line compliance posts to increase the scope and coverage of interventions aimed at identifying employers who do not pay the minimum wage.

The second tranche of £1 million has been used to appoint staff into new roles specifically geared to promoting compliance with the National Minimum Wage, through education and support for employers, helping workers to understand their rights, and tackling serious non-compliance where deliberate behaviour is suspected.

Staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing National Minimum Wage, including people who work in legal advice, debt management, technical support and criminal investigation. However, HMRC does not record the specific numbers of those staff involved beyond those identified in UIN 16853.

HMRC does not breakdown the overall budget allocated into specific activities. For details of the overall budget in 2015/16, I refer the honourable member back to the answer provided at UIN 16853. Funding allocations for 2016/17 onwards have yet to be confirmed.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time of cases in employment tribunals related to non-payment of the National Minimum Wage was in each of the last five years.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The average clearance time of employment tribunal claims for non-payment of the National Minimum Wage¹ in each of the last five years is as shown in Table 1 below:

Financial Year	Average time in weeks
2010-11	43
2011-12	41
2012-13	43
2013-14	32
2014-15	74

source: ET Database February 2016

¹ "Suffer a detriment and/or dismissal related to failure to pay the minimum wage or allow access to records"

In 2014-15 we reviewed outstanding cases and removed a backlog of very old cases from the case management system. The overall trend in average clearance time for single cases is improving and this can be seen in the Published Statistics at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time of cases in employment tribunals was in each of the last five years.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The average length of time of cases in the Employment Tribunal can be located at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25610, how many national minimum wage enquiries relating to non-payment or deductions were made to (a) the Pay and Work Rights Helpline and (b) Acas by people working in (i) domiciliary and (ii) residential care between 2009-10 and 2014-15.

Nick Boles

Information on the number of enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline or Acas by workers from the ‘domiciliary care’ and ‘residential care’ sector is not available. The answer of 11 February 2016 to Question 25610 represents the most detailed breakdown of trade sector information available.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-21.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) enforcement actions have been undertaken by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) involving victims of modern slavery and (b) victims of modern slavery HMRC recovered national minimum wage arrears for in each of the last five years; and how much in national minimum wage arrears HMRC has recovered for victims of modern slavery in that period.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has developed a specific training package targeting Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking which is mandatory for all visiting officers. This training advises officers on the indicators to look for and the responses to take where exploitation is suspected.

HMRC participates in multi-agency investigations into cases of Modern Slavery where there are potential tax or National Minimum Wage (NMW) offences. Since February 2015, HMRC has opened 73 tax investigations in cases where Modern Slavery is suspected. HMRC does not collate specific data on any NMW arrears identified in cases involving Modern Slavery.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2016 to Question 29835, and with reference to the Answer of 10 June 2013 to Question 158962, for what reasons information on the number of national minimum wage inquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights and Acas helplines relating to the domiciliary care and residential care sectors is not being collected at the previously available level of disaggregation.

Nick Boles

Information on the number of National Minimum Wage enquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) and Acas Helpline for the ‘domiciliary care’ and ‘residential care’ sectors has never been systematically collected.

However, additional information about a complaint is collected after it is referred to HMRC and investigated further. This can include more detailed information on the sector in which the employer in question operates.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the costs or savings to his Department of (a) none, (b) 25 per cent, (c) 50 per cent, (d) 75 per cent and (e) 100 per cent of the staff based at the St Paul’s Place office leaving his Department as a result of the closure of that office.

Joseph Johnson

If the proposal to close the BIS HQ office at St Paul’s Place goes ahead the Department would undertake to offer another round of voluntary exit proposals to staff based in Sheffield, as well as the other smaller numbers in other locations who are affected. We would also expect in such a scenario that a number of staff would find roles elsewhere, and that some members of staff might retire, as well as the possibility that redundancies might be required in some cases. Actual costs would depend on these variables. As regards any estimate of savings to the Department I refer the hon Member to my answer to his related question number UIN 33959.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether data gathered from border exit checks will enable her Department to distinguish between short and longer-term overstaying of visas.

James Brokenshire

Exit checks were introduced in April 2015. They will, over a period of time, provide us with a range of insights into the behaviours of migrants and how they comply with restrictions placed upon their length of stay in the UK.

Data collected from exit checks is a record of cross border movement. It may in the future help inform but will not in itself answer questions on emigration.

The Home Office has announced that it is considering the use of exit checks data for statistical reporting and intends to publish an initial evaluation of the use of exit checks for this purpose. The evaluation will be a technical assessment of the analysis carried out thus far and of the further analysis necessary to better understand short, medium, and long term opportunities.

The initial evaluation of the use of exit checks will be published on 25 August to coincide with the next quarterly immigration statistics release.

Publication of the initial evaluation on the use of exit checks will be on the GOV.UK website