Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people working for his Department or its executive agencies in the Liverpool City Region on a (a) directly employed, (b) agency or (c) outsourced basis are paid less than the living wage as defined by the Living Wages Foundation; and how many such people are employed on zero-hours contracts.

A new statutory National Living Wage was announced in the 2015 summer budget for those aged 25 and over. DWP pays all direct employees at least the statutory National Living Wage, regardless of age.

a) There are no individuals directly employed by DWP in the Liverpool City Region who are paid below the rate promoted by the Living Wage Foundation. There are no directly employed individuals on zero-hours contracts.

b) DWP’s temporary agency staff are employed in line with Agency Workers Regulations which ensures parity with directly employed staff after 12 weeks. These specialists are usually involved in a defined package of work or project and are not engaged on zero hour contracts.

c) The department’s Estate is provided by Telereal Trillium under the outsourced PRIME contract. Services are delivered through a number of service partners. All Telereal Trillium and service partner staff employed both within or outside London are paid at, or in excess of, the corresponding National Living Wage.

DWP employs a range of trusted third party contractors to provide Office support services – this includes 856 staff who whilst earning more than the Government’s National Living Wage earn less than The Living Wage Foundation’s rate of £8.25 ph, of these 52 are on casual contracts ( not zero hours). It is not possible to confirm the numbers located in the Liverpool City Region.

For all other categories of spend, information shows that staff are in receipt of the National Living Wage or higher and are not employed on zero hour contracts.