Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to make leading brands jointly responsible for non-compliance with the national living wage within their supply chains.

The Government has made clear its commitment to crack down on worker exploitation across all sectors of the labour market and welcomes the Labour Market Enforcement Strategy 2018 -19.

There is significant crossover and alignment between this strategy and the government's response to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices and subsequent consultations. The Government will publish a response to the Director of Labour Market Enforcement's strategy later this year, once the consultations have closed and the government has considered the responses.

Estimates of the number of jobs paid below National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage by Low Pay Sector (as defined by the Low Pay Commission) are available in Chart 3 on page 10 of the 2017 Government evidence to the LPC report- https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/630197/nmw-nlw-lpc-evidence-compliance-enforcement-2017.pdf.

These estimates are derived from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2016; and it should be noted that some textile and clothing occupations are included in the ‘Non-Low Paying Sectors’ category.

The Government will publish new evidence to the Low Pay Commission containing ASHE 2017 estimates of jobs below minimum wage rates and enforcement stats for 2017/18 later this year.

HMRC works closely with other government departments and agencies to tackle National Minimum Wage non-compliance and wider labour market risks, including in the garment and fashion manufacturing industry.