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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to create a single enforcement body for the enforcement of the national minimum wage.

HM Revenue and Customs already effectively enforces the minimum wage. Since 2015, HMRC has ordered employers to return £100m to 1 million workers who had been underpaid.

The Government have been unequivocal in our commitment to protect and enhance workers’ rights as build back better from the pandemic and to bring forward legislative proposals to better protect vulnerable workers and create a level playing-field for the majority of employers complying with the law.

As laid out in our manifesto, legislating to establish a Single Enforcement Body for employment rights will be a central part of our efforts to achieve this ambition.

We have already made good progress on this by publishing our response to the consultation, which sets out high level proposals for the body. As laid out in our response, this new single enforcement body will bring together three existing bodies: the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and HMRC’s National Minimum Wage Enforcement.

We will bring forward further detailed proposals in due course, and in the meantime continue to work with stakeholders to take necessary action to support businesses and protect jobs.