Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many investigations were carried out by the (a) Employment Standards Agency Inspectorate and (b) HMRC National Minimum Wage enforcement team for the 2020-21 annual reporting period.
Answered by Paul Scully
HMRC National Minimum Wage team investigate matters classified as non-payment of the national minimum wage. In spite of the pandemic, 2020/21 was another successful year for HMRC’s minimum wage enforcement activities. HMRC investigated over 2,700 businesses and closed almost 1,000 cases with arrears, secured more than £16.5 million in arrears for more than 155,000 workers, and issued 575 penalties amounting to over £14 million. HMRC continue to take strong action against the most serious non-compliant businesses and as of March 2021 there are 24 employers in a Labour Market Enforcement Undertaking, and 15 employers have been prosecuted for NMW offences since 2007.
Over the course of 2020/21, the HMRC Promote team facilitated nearly 800,000 employers and workers to seek further information in relation to the minimum wage.
This included:
- Sending more than 400,000 texts to apprentices regarding the risk of underpayment from unpaid training time;
- Writing to nearly 200,000 employers and workers;
- Producing a variety of webinars and educational videos that accumulated nearly 20,000 views.
In addition to the above, the “Calculating the Minimum Wage” guidance had nearly 50,000 views; and there were almost 9,000 views of the work experience and intern’s guidance.
There were more than 400 full time employees on average involved in HMRC’s enforcement of the minimum wage over the 2020/21 reporting year.
The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate also continued to investigate all complaints throughout 2020/21 and undertook proactive inspections of employment businesses. These included issues concerning non-payment or withholding earnings, being charged to find work, contractual disputes, lack of clarity of deductions, advertising of roles, and failure to obtain either sufficient information from a hiring company or work-seeker. It investigated a total of 1631 complaints in the 2020/21 period and undertook 151 pro-active investigations.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many frontline (a) enforcement officers and (b) inspectors were employed on average in the HMRC National Minimum Wage enforcement team for the 2020-21 annual reporting period.
Answered by Paul Scully
HMRC National Minimum Wage team investigate matters classified as non-payment of the national minimum wage. In spite of the pandemic, 2020/21 was another successful year for HMRC’s minimum wage enforcement activities. HMRC investigated over 2,700 businesses and closed almost 1,000 cases with arrears, secured more than £16.5 million in arrears for more than 155,000 workers, and issued 575 penalties amounting to over £14 million. HMRC continue to take strong action against the most serious non-compliant businesses and as of March 2021 there are 24 employers in a Labour Market Enforcement Undertaking, and 15 employers have been prosecuted for NMW offences since 2007.
Over the course of 2020/21, the HMRC Promote team facilitated nearly 800,000 employers and workers to seek further information in relation to the minimum wage.
This included:
- Sending more than 400,000 texts to apprentices regarding the risk of underpayment from unpaid training time;
- Writing to nearly 200,000 employers and workers;
- Producing a variety of webinars and educational videos that accumulated nearly 20,000 views.
In addition to the above, the “Calculating the Minimum Wage” guidance had nearly 50,000 views; and there were almost 9,000 views of the work experience and intern’s guidance.
There were more than 400 full time employees on average involved in HMRC’s enforcement of the minimum wage over the 2020/21 reporting year.
The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate also continued to investigate all complaints throughout 2020/21 and undertook proactive inspections of employment businesses. These included issues concerning non-payment or withholding earnings, being charged to find work, contractual disputes, lack of clarity of deductions, advertising of roles, and failure to obtain either sufficient information from a hiring company or work-seeker. It investigated a total of 1631 complaints in the 2020/21 period and undertook 151 pro-active investigations.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish a classification of the matters being investigated by the (a) Employment Standards Agency Inspectorate and (b) HMRC National Minimum Wage enforcement team for the 2020-21 annual reporting period.
Answered by Paul Scully
HMRC National Minimum Wage team investigate matters classified as non-payment of the national minimum wage. In spite of the pandemic, 2020/21 was another successful year for HMRC’s minimum wage enforcement activities. HMRC investigated over 2,700 businesses and closed almost 1,000 cases with arrears, secured more than £16.5 million in arrears for more than 155,000 workers, and issued 575 penalties amounting to over £14 million. HMRC continue to take strong action against the most serious non-compliant businesses and as of March 2021 there are 24 employers in a Labour Market Enforcement Undertaking, and 15 employers have been prosecuted for NMW offences since 2007.
Over the course of 2020/21, the HMRC Promote team facilitated nearly 800,000 employers and workers to seek further information in relation to the minimum wage.
This included:
- Sending more than 400,000 texts to apprentices regarding the risk of underpayment from unpaid training time;
- Writing to nearly 200,000 employers and workers;
- Producing a variety of webinars and educational videos that accumulated nearly 20,000 views.
In addition to the above, the “Calculating the Minimum Wage” guidance had nearly 50,000 views; and there were almost 9,000 views of the work experience and intern’s guidance.
There were more than 400 full time employees on average involved in HMRC’s enforcement of the minimum wage over the 2020/21 reporting year.
The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate also continued to investigate all complaints throughout 2020/21 and undertook proactive inspections of employment businesses. These included issues concerning non-payment or withholding earnings, being charged to find work, contractual disputes, lack of clarity of deductions, advertising of roles, and failure to obtain either sufficient information from a hiring company or work-seeker. It investigated a total of 1631 complaints in the 2020/21 period and undertook 151 pro-active investigations.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many workplace inspections were carried out by the (a) Employment Standards Agency Inspectorate, (b) HMRC National Minimum Wage enforcement team, (c) Health and Safety Executive and (d) Gangmaster Labour Abuse Authority for the annual reporting period 2020-21.
Answered by Paul Scully
All bodies continued to carry out workplace inspections throughout 2020-21, either remotely or face to face in line with Covid safety guidelines. Please see the figures in the table below.
Body | Number of workplace inspections in 2020-21 |
Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate | 151 |
HMRC National Minimum Wage | 2,740 |
Health and Safety Executive | 14,754 workplace inspections 182,610 spot checks |
Gangmaster Labour Abuse Authority | 440 |
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department plans to publish the Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2020 to 2021.
Answered by Paul Scully
We are working with our colleagues at the Home Office to publish the Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2020-21 in due course. It was important to take the time to work with the former Director of Labour Market Enforcement and the enforcement bodies to ensure that the Strategy is making the right recommendations in the face of the new challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic. The 2020/21 will be published as an agreed Strategy and so we will be taking forward all the recommendations in the final version.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to improve rights and protections for employees.
Answered by Paul Scully
This Government is committed to making the UK the best place in the world to work. As laid out in our manifesto, we will bring forward measures to establish an employment framework which is fit for purpose and keeps pace with the needs of modern workplaces. These measures will make workplaces fairer by:
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has appointed an Interim-Director of Labour Market Enforcement to succeed Matthew Taylor.
Answered by Paul Scully
Matthew Taylor was appointed as interim Director of Labour Market Enforcement in July 2019. His appointment was due to end in July 2020 and we extended it until 31 January 2021 to provide continuity during the early stages of the pandemic. In November 2020, we launched a recruitment campaign for a permanent Director of Labour Market Enforcement However, we received an insufficient number of suitable applications for the role to shortlist, so we have now reopened the recruitment process.. So far, we have not spent anything on recruitment beyond resourcing from departmental staff, but some paid-for activity is planned over the coming weeks. The deadline for applications is 28 February. Once the campaign has closed we will work at pace to recruit a new Director as soon as possible. We have not identified a new interim appointment and cannot make any comments on individual circumstances.
While we work to fill the vacancy as soon as possible, the heads of three enforcement bodies will remain responsible for their overall work and enforcement responsibilities. They will continue to work hard to protect workers and bring enforcement action against employers who break the rules.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when his Department plans to appoint a permanent Director of Labour Market Enforcement.
Answered by Paul Scully
Matthew Taylor was appointed as interim Director of Labour Market Enforcement in July 2019. His appointment was due to end in July 2020 and we extended it until 31 January 2021 to provide continuity during the early stages of the pandemic. In November 2020, we launched a recruitment campaign for a permanent Director of Labour Market Enforcement However, we received an insufficient number of suitable applications for the role to shortlist, so we have now reopened the recruitment process.. So far, we have not spent anything on recruitment beyond resourcing from departmental staff, but some paid-for activity is planned over the coming weeks. The deadline for applications is 28 February. Once the campaign has closed we will work at pace to recruit a new Director as soon as possible. We have not identified a new interim appointment and cannot make any comments on individual circumstances.
While we work to fill the vacancy as soon as possible, the heads of three enforcement bodies will remain responsible for their overall work and enforcement responsibilities. They will continue to work hard to protect workers and bring enforcement action against employers who break the rules.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason his Department decided not to extend Matthew Taylor's contract as the Interim-Director of Labour Market Enforcement until a successor is found.
Answered by Paul Scully
Matthew Taylor was appointed as interim Director of Labour Market Enforcement in July 2019. His appointment was due to end in July 2020 and we extended it until 31 January 2021 to provide continuity during the early stages of the pandemic. In November 2020, we launched a recruitment campaign for a permanent Director of Labour Market Enforcement However, we received an insufficient number of suitable applications for the role to shortlist, so we have now reopened the recruitment process.. So far, we have not spent anything on recruitment beyond resourcing from departmental staff, but some paid-for activity is planned over the coming weeks. The deadline for applications is 28 February. Once the campaign has closed we will work at pace to recruit a new Director as soon as possible. We have not identified a new interim appointment and cannot make any comments on individual circumstances.
While we work to fill the vacancy as soon as possible, the heads of three enforcement bodies will remain responsible for their overall work and enforcement responsibilities. They will continue to work hard to protect workers and bring enforcement action against employers who break the rules.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much his Department has spent on recruitment for the position of Director of Labour Market Enforcement to date.
Answered by Paul Scully
Matthew Taylor was appointed as interim Director of Labour Market Enforcement in July 2019. His appointment was due to end in July 2020 and we extended it until 31 January 2021 to provide continuity during the early stages of the pandemic. In November 2020, we launched a recruitment campaign for a permanent Director of Labour Market Enforcement However, we received an insufficient number of suitable applications for the role to shortlist, so we have now reopened the recruitment process.. So far, we have not spent anything on recruitment beyond resourcing from departmental staff, but some paid-for activity is planned over the coming weeks. The deadline for applications is 28 February. Once the campaign has closed we will work at pace to recruit a new Director as soon as possible. We have not identified a new interim appointment and cannot make any comments on individual circumstances.
While we work to fill the vacancy as soon as possible, the heads of three enforcement bodies will remain responsible for their overall work and enforcement responsibilities. They will continue to work hard to protect workers and bring enforcement action against employers who break the rules.