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 13 October 2016 to Question 46899, how much of the £8,157,919 of arrears recovered from the 815 employers issued with both a Notice of Underpayment and financial penalty was recovered through the self-correction mechanism introduced by HM Revenue and Customs in 2015; from how many employers those arrears were recovered; and how many of the 43,995 workers for whom arrears were recovered benefited only as a result of that self-correction of arrears by their employer.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) use self-correction in appropriate situations as an additional tool to maximise the impact of their enforcement activity. For example, where HMRC have investigated a National Minimum Wage complaint and found arrears, they have the flexibility to instruct the employer to self-correct for the rest of their payroll – freeing up HMRC staff to work on more investigations. HMRC follow up with a sample of workers to ensure employers have carried out its instructions.

Self-correction has helped identify a significant amount of arrears and ensure it has been paid back to workers while only requiring minimal investment of public funds. Of the £8,157,919 arrears identified in 2015/16 from employers who were issued with a Notice of Underpayment and penalty by HM Revenue and Customs, £3,154,112 owed to 14,296 workers was identified through self-correction. In total, 67 employers reported additional, self-corrected arrears.