Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many contracts procured by his Department and its arms-length bodies require that the contractor pays those of its employees undertaking the work contracted the real living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation in each of the last three financial years.

The Government believes that people have the right to a higher wage and not to be punished by higher taxes. As part of this, from April 2016, we introduced a new mandatory National Living Wage (NLW) for workers aged 25 and above, and this will rise to £7.50 an hour in April 2017. DfT contractors are required to comply with all legal requirements, including payment of the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage as applicable. My Department does not have central records to the level of detail as to whether any given contract pays a higher rate.