Minimum Wage

(asked on 11th January 2017) - View Source

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 Answers of 15 November 2016 to Questions 52386 and 52387, and with reference to paragraph 1.8 of the National Audit Office report, Ensuring Employers Comply with National Minimum Wage Regulations, published in May 2016, and paragraph 5.191 of the Low Pay Commission's Autumn 2016 report, what the reasons are for the difference between the figure of £3.84 million given for the total sum of arrears identified through the self-correction mechanism in 2015-16 provided in those Answers and the figure of £4.6 million in those reports.


Answered by
Margot James Portrait
Margot James
This question was answered on 19th January 2017

Questions 52386 and 52387 related to different subsets of arrears totals for 2015/16 – respectively these are:

(a) £688,695 self-corrected arrears owed by employers found to be non-compliant with the national minimum wage but not issued with a Notice of Underpayment or financial penalty;

(b) £3,154,112 additional, self-corrected arrears owed by employers who were issued with a Notice of Underpayment and a penalty.

The £4.6m figure for self-correction quoted in both the National Audit Office May 2016 report and the Low Pay Commission’s November 2016 report is another subset of 2015/16 arrears, given to the NAO before figures for 2015/16 were finalised. This includes the figures quoted above as well as:

(a) £742,587 arrears voluntarily disclosed by employers who took part in HM Revenue and Custom’s 2015 National Minimum Wage campaign

(b) £3,560 arrears owed by employers who were issued with a Notice of Underpayment but no penalty.

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