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 oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, of 4 June 2019, Official Report, column 47, if he will publish the findings of the further analysis that his Department conducted on the potential effect of changes to the National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme on the number of employers named; and when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy last met the Director of Labour Market Enforcement to discuss the Naming Scheme.

The Government is committed to enforcing the National Minimum Wage (NMW). In 2018/19, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) identified a record £24.4 million in arrears for over 220,000 workers and issued over £17 million in penalties to non-compliant employers. We have more than doubled HMRC’s budget for NMW compliance and enforcement since 2015 to £27.4 million for 2019/20.

The Government will resume naming employers found underpaying the NMW. We are reviewing the Naming Scheme to ensure that it continues to effectively support NMW compliance. We will conclude the review during the summer and publish any resulting effects on the operation of the Naming Scheme through the NMW Enforcement policy documents.

We are reviewing the Naming Scheme in response to recommendations made by the Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME), Professor Sir David Metcalf