Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to enforce compliance among social care providers based (a) in the UK and (b) abroad that fail to pay (i) wages and (ii) pension contributions.

The law is clear: if you are a UK-based worker, you are entitled to rights under UK employment law, regardless of where your employer is based.

HMRC enforces the minimum wage on behalf of DBT. It considers all complaints from workers and where it finds underpayment orders employers to pay workers their money back, and a penalty to government. Since the minimum wage was introduced, the Government has overseen the repayment of over £186 million to 1.5 million workers, issued over £100 million in financial penalties and completed over 90,000 investigations.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has powers to take compliance action against employers who are found not to be paying employer pensions contributions, including, where necessary, through court action. The Pensions Ombudsman will consider complaints from individuals and award compensation when appropriate.

The Employment Rights Bill will create the Fair Work Agency to bring together employment rights enforcement. This body will provide better support for employers to comply with the law and will have powers to take tough action against the minority who flout it.

The Government has committed to establishing a new Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector, empowering worker representatives and employer representatives to negotiate fair pay and terms and conditions in a regulated and responsible manner.