Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans he has to increase enforcement rates for the national minimum wage.

The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break the National Minimum Wage (NMW) law. In 2014/15, HMRC conducted 2,204 investigations into potential NMW non-compliance, totalling £3,291,529 of arrears for 26,318 workers.

This is up from 1,455 investigations conducted in 2013/14, totalling £4,645,547

of arrears for 22,610 workers.

Building on our existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW. These include:

• increasing penalties from 100% to 200% of the arrears employers owed.
• the setting up of a dedicated team in Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) focused on tackling the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance.
• increasing the enforcement budget in preparation for the National Minimum and Living Wage from April 2016.
• the creation of a statutory Director of Labour Market Enforcement and Exploitation.