Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, under what provisions enforcement activity on the payment of sleep-in shifts by social care providers was temporarily suspended until 2 October 2017.

The suspension announced on 26 July is temporary; it does not change workers’ legal entitlement to their arrears of pay for any underpayments of the National Minimum Wage. The relevant enforcement power in the National Minimum Wage Act, to issue notices of underpayment, is discretionary. The suspension is consistent with this and is in line with the Government’s NMW enforcement policy on sleep-in shifts in the social care sector, as set out in a statement made on 26 July 2017. Workers may continue to enforce their rights through employment tribunals and the courts while the suspension is in force.