Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 3 June 2025 to Question 54274 on Government Departments: Publicity, if he will publish the spending control business case and approval for the 2025 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage campaign.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28th May 2025 to question 52688 (Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament).
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62346 on Postage Stamps, whether his Department hold copies of the (a) agenda (b) minutes and (c) papers of the Royal Mail’s stamp advisory committee.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Stamp Advisory Committee advises Royal Mail on future stamp designs. The Postal Museum’s online catalogue lists copies of Stamp Advisory Committee minutes which are available to the public for research in line with Royal Mail’s retention policy.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 28 May 2025 to Question 52687 on Pay: Publicity, which (a) publications, (b) channels and (c) sites paid-for advertising was undertaken on.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
a). Publications: No paid advertising for this campaign ran in print publications.
b). Channels: These were:
o Online digital display advertising
o Digital online video (YouTube)
o Social media (Snapchat, Meta - Facebook/Instagram, Reddit)
o Radio
o Out of home: train card panels in national rail/bus interiors, beermats in 1000 pubs and digital screens in gyms
o Paid search (Google)
o Use of six digital influencers (Instagram/TikTok)
c). Sites: Online digital display advertising is bought programmatically by audience, not by site, and it is thus not possible to provide details of the sites that users saw such advertising appearing on. In addition, advertising appeared on the social media and search sites listed in answer to part b) above.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 28 May 2025 to Question 52687 on Pay: Publicity, which digital influencers were commissioned for the campaign; and how much was paid to each.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As part of the National Minimum and Living Wage Campaign, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) selected six digital influencers who could reach the campaign’s target audiences through their social media channels.
We are unable to provide details of how much was paid to each person due to confidentiality provisions in the individual agreements. This used 3% of the total budget of the campaign.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his Department’s publication entitled Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023: second progress report, published on 16 June 2025, what steps he is taking to remove (a) false, (b) misleading and (c) incorrect information from the Companies House register.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 has given Companies House new powers to tackle false, incorrect or misleading information on its registers. To 31 May 2025, the use of these powers by Companies House has impacted 121,800 companies and has seen the removal of information including 100,500 registered office addresses.
In addition to removing information from its registers, Companies House is developing new capabilities to detect, track and block suspicious information pre-registration. These steps have already prevented over 10,000 suspicious filings.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many full time equivalent permanent staff were assigned to work in the Office for Investment in June (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The number of staff (FTE) in the Office for Investment (OfI) was approximately 30. The target operating model for the expanded OfI, which launched on the 5th of June 2025, includes approximately 230 FTE (including overseas OfI representatives). This will be subject to revisions in line with Government policy.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 1 May 2025 to Question 47348 on Conditions of Employment, what comparative estimate he has made of the workload of the (a) Fair Work Agency and (b) existing bodies being merged into Fair Work Agency.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Fair Work Agency will take over responsibility for the labour market enforcement currently undertaken by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority and HMRC’s National Minimum Wage team. It will also, in time, take on enforcing additional rights such as holiday pay and sick pay. The specific legislation the Fair Work Agency will enforce is set out in Part 1 of Schedule 7 of the Employment Rights Bill.
More detail will be provided around the details of how the Fair Work Agency will operate including workload and funding in due course.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 7 May 2025 to Question 48551 on Trade Union Recognition, what criteria he will use to assess whether to lower the recognition threshold.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government will consider what criteria to assess whether to lower the recognition threshold in due course, including through the public consultation process.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 14 May 2025 to Question 50224, on Pay: Publicity, what the total cost is for Millions get a pay rise campaign; whether it was approved under communications spending controls; and what the cost was for the beer mats.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The 2025 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage campaign is running until 31 May 2025 and is budgeted to cost up to £650,000. This was approved under Cabinet Office’s advertising, marketing and communications spending controls. The cost to advertise in pubs using beer mats was £35,580, which was approved at Official level.
The 2024 campaign saw an increase in reach to eligible workers. However, recognition remained low, reinforcing the need for bolder, more engaging formats for the 2025 campaign, which expected to deliver an estimated 3.2 million impressions.
It offered a unique opportunity to engage audiences in a social, high-dwell environment where financial conversations naturally occur. This setting encourages discussion and word-of-mouth sharing about rate changes and offers an effective nudge for audiences to "check their pay."
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 14 May 2025 to Question 50224 on Pay: Publicity, which advertising channels were used to promote the Millions got a pay rise campaign.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The advertising channels used for the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage campaign include radio, community radio, paid search, online video, paid social, programmatic digital display, digital influencer activity, and out-of-home advertising such as bus and train advertising panels, gym advertising panels and hospitality environments. Our channels are planned and carefully considered to ensure we can reach the right audiences, including using the learnings from previous campaigns.