Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2014, Official Report, column 246W, on the national minimum wage, how many of the firms named and shamed for breach of the national minimum wage up to 8 June 2014 were issued notices of underpayments once the firm had dissolved; what the time was between each underpayment and the time of issuing of notice; how many of the employers named and shamed (a) paid their employees the underpayment and (b) paid a financial penalty to the Government; and if he will make a statement.

The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.

All 30 employers that have been named and shamed up to 8 June 2014 were issued with a Notice of Underpayment (NoU) and were still in existence when the NoU was issued.

The Department’s answer to the Hon. Member’s parliamentary question of 25 June 2014 (Official Report, column 246W) sets out the months that the NoU were issued. HMRC do not record the time between the date of each underpayment and the issue of the Notice of Underpayment. HMRC can pursue arrears claims for workers going back up to six years and therefore a worker may complain up to six years after the time they think they were underpaid. Additionally, investigations following a complaint may identify further underpaid workers or other periods of underpayment going back several years.

All of the employers who were named and shamed paid the arrears due to workers and also the financial penalty imposed.