Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answers of 12 January 2016 to Questions 19955 and 19954, (a) how much funding was allocated to and (b) how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate in each year from 2009-10 to 2014-15.
Nick Boles
In 2009-2010 the spend for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) was £1,072,608 and the Inspectorate employed 30 staff, including administrative support and call handling staff.
In 2010-2011 the spend for EAS was £932,000 with 29 staff employed (as of 1 May 2010).
In 2010 the Pay and Work Rights helpline was created. This took over complaint handling and provision of advice and guidance for agencies and agency workers, thus reducing the need for EAS support staff who had previously performed this function. Consequently, in 2011-2012 EAS spend reduced to £637,631 with 23 staff employed.
Following a restructure in the Department and streamlining of processes, in 2012-2013 EAS spend was £551,461 with 16 staff employed.
In 2013-2014 EAS spend was £532,023 with 12 staff employed (as of the 1st April 2013).
In November 2013, as part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to review regularly the enforcement of the national minimum wage, a more targeted enforcement strategy for the recruitment sector was announced, focusing on protecting the most vulnerable, low-paid workers. Resources from EAS moved to HM Revenue and Customs’ National Minimum Wage (NMW) team to form a new HMRC team which mainly focussed on enforcing non-payment of national minimum wage in the recruitment sector. This ensured that the most vulnerable workers were protected and created a level playing field for the vast majority of agencies who play by the rules. Two staff remained in BIS to enforce the recruitment sector regulations and prioritised complaints using a risk-based approach.
As part of the Government programme on illegal working and tackling exploitation, a decision was taken in February 2015 to increase EAS resourcing. In June 2015 the number of full time equivalent staff increased to nine. Actual spend will not be available until the end of the financial year.
