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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his Department's policy to restore immediately the policy of naming of employers for National Minimum Wage breaches whilst the review of the National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme is ongoing.

As announced in the Government response of December 2018, the review of the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage (NMW) Naming Scheme commenced in response to recommendations made by the Director of Labour Market Enforcement in his 2018/2019 Labour Market Enforcement Strategy. Naming of employers for NMW breaches will recommence once that review has been completed.

We are reviewing the effectiveness of the naming scheme to ensure that our enforcement approach balances the need to crack down on the most egregious non-compliant employers with the need to help employers understand their responsibilities and how to comply.

Naming remains an important part of our enforcement toolkit. Enforcement of the national minimum wage and the national living wage is a priority for this Government to ensure that workers receive at least the Minimum Wage. We have more than doubled the budget for minimum wage compliance and enforcement since 2015, to a record high of £27.4 million. This resulted in over 220,000 UK workers receiving a record £24.4 million in arrears last year.