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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 11 February 2019 to Question 216363 on Pay, whether his Department has estimated the value of wages unlawfully unpaid for any periods of time.

The Government does not hold estimates of the total value of wages unlawfully unpaid.

The enforcement of the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage (NMW) is a top priority for the Government; we have increased HMRC’s enforcement budget to a record high of £26.3 million for 2018-19.

The position of Director of Labour Market Enforcement was created in 2017 with an obligation to assess the scale and nature of labour market non-compliance. The Director draws upon a wide range of information and intelligence, including the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

The Director utilises this intelligence to identify future labour market enforcement priorities for the HM Revenue and Customs Minimum Wage team, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority.

The Director’s Labour Market Enforcement Strategy for 2018 to 2019 can be found below: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/labour-market-enforcement-strategy-2018-to-2019. The recommendations set out within the strategy were overwhelmingly adopted by the Government in December 2018.