Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) illegal levels of pay, (b) furlough fraud, (c) double record keeping and (d) VAT fraud in Leicester’s garment Industry.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC enforce the National Minimum and National Living Wage (NMW) in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
All businesses, irrespective of size or sector, are responsible for paying the correct minimum wage to their staff. Consequences for not complying with paying NMW can include penalties of 200% of the arrears, public naming and, for the worst offences, criminal prosecution.
Breaches of NMW legislation are normally a civil matter, but the most serious cases involving obstruction, falsifying of documents by, for example, creating a second set of ‘compliant records’ or wilful failure to pay workers the minimum wage that form part of a pattern of wider criminality may be referred to HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service and subsequently to the Crown Prosecution Service who decide whether or not to prosecute.
Since 2012-13, HMRC’s NMW team has investigated 150 textile trade employers (59 employers in Leicester), recovering over £215,000 in wage arrears for over 400 workers and issued over £325,000 of penalties to employers.
As a result of the widespread allegations about labour exploitation in Leicester this year, a new multi-agency taskforce (Operation Tacit) led by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) has been set up to bring together the enforcement bodies (HMRC, Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate (BEIS), Leicestershire Police, National Crime Agency, Leicester City Council, Department for Work and Pensions and Home Office Immigration Enforcement).
Across tax and the NMW, HMRC have a significant number of live investigations involving businesses in the textile sector (over 90 NMW investigations and over 30 tax investigations), a large majority of which relate to Leicester. In 2019/20 HMRC completed 25 separate investigations into the VAT affairs of businesses in the textile trade in Leicester alone and in doing so recovered more than £2 million of tax that would otherwise have been lost and facilitated 21 director disqualifications relating to the textile sector.
HMRC are also taking steps to counteract those seeking to abuse the COVID-19 support schemes. In line with other “payment-out” regimes, HMRC undertake pre-payment authentication and risking to identify and block fraudulent claims. HMRC also carry out proportionate risk-based post-payment compliance checks to test the accuracy of claims they receive. HMRC are able to retrospectively audit all aspects of the COVID-19 schemes, with scope to claw back fraudulent or inaccurate claims, applying their existing compliance approaches.
HMRC take seriously and review all complaints from workers referred by the Acas helpline, or received via the online complaints form, and investigate as appropriate. If anyone thinks they are not receiving at least the minimum wage, they can contact Acas, in confidence, on 0300 123 1100 or submit a query online using the link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many prosecutions for non-payment of the National Minimum Wage there have been (a) in total since 2010 and (b) in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC enforce the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
All businesses, irrespective of size or business sector, are responsible for paying the correct minimum wage to their staff. HMRC will not hesitate to take action to ensure that workers receive the pay to which they are legally entitled.
A majority of NMW cases relate to civil (non-criminal) offences, which attract penalties of up to 200% of the identified wage arrears and public naming.
Alongside civil sanctions, HMRC have a clear approach for how they consider prosecutions in appropriate cases involving potential criminal breaches in the most serious cases.
Where potential criminality has occurred, HMRC refer these cases to the Crown Prosecution Service who decide whether or not to prosecute.
Since 2010-11 HMRC have completed nearly 25,000 NMW investigations, identifying over £100 million in national minimum wage arrears for over 950,000 workers. During this period, HMRC investigations have also led to the successful prosecution of 8 employers for NMW related offences. A yearly breakdown of NMW prosecutions is included in the table below.
Year | Number of prosecutions |
2010/11 | 1 |
2011/12 | 0 |
2012/13 | 1 |
2013/14 | 0 |
2014/15 | 0 |
2015/16 | 0 |
2016/17 | 4 |
2017/18 | 1 |
2018/19 | 0 |
2019/20 | 1 |
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what additional steps his Department is taking to secure prosecutions for non-payment of the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC enforce the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
All businesses, irrespective of size or business sector, are responsible for paying the correct minimum wage to their staff. HMRC will not hesitate to take action to ensure that workers receive the pay to which they are legally entitled.
A majority of NMW cases relate to civil (non-criminal) offences, which attract penalties of up to 200% of the identified wage arrears and public naming.
Alongside civil sanctions, HMRC have a clear approach for how they consider prosecutions in appropriate cases involving potential criminal breaches in the most serious cases.
Where potential criminality has occurred, HMRC refer these cases to the Crown Prosecution Service who decide whether or not to prosecute.
Since 2010-11 HMRC have completed nearly 25,000 NMW investigations, identifying over £100 million in national minimum wage arrears for over 950,000 workers. During this period, HMRC investigations have also led to the successful prosecution of 8 employers for NMW related offences. A yearly breakdown of NMW prosecutions is included in the table below.
Year | Number of prosecutions |
2010/11 | 1 |
2011/12 | 0 |
2012/13 | 1 |
2013/14 | 0 |
2014/15 | 0 |
2015/16 | 0 |
2016/17 | 4 |
2017/18 | 1 |
2018/19 | 0 |
2019/20 | 1 |
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 18 February (HL1258), why they described those National Service workers employed by Segen engineering as “civilian”; whether those workers were recruited through national military conscription in Eritrea; and how they categories which workers are (1) civilians, and (2) part of the military.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The Eritrean Government has justified civilian and military national service on grounds of the security threat posed by Ethiopia, but we have yet to see concrete proposals for reform following the peace declaration. According to our information, every Eritrean young person completes their 12th and final year of school at the national service military training centre at Sawa where they do both military training as well as academic study. At the end, they take exams which leads to some going to college, some receiving vocational training, while others join government ministries or the military. All jobs in Eritrea in the public sector are done by Eritreans on national service, and these include the civil service, teachers, doctors, construction and the military. Sustainable reform of national service needs to happen in tandem with improvements to the economic situation and job creation. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they are seeking to encourage remote working in the public sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government has been clear that people should work from home wherever possible. This applies to all workers, including those in the public sector, whilst recognising that many public sector workers continue to risk their lives in the service of their communities.
In the Civil Service, departments have been issued with working from home guidance as well as a practical working from home toolkit. This includes information on the safe and secure use of technology and data as well as advice on wellbeing, mental health and staying connected. Departments are creating their own guidance packages specific to their employees and are encouraging employees, their line managers and teams to have regular conversations during this period.
NHS England wrote to Chief Executives of all NHS trusts and providers of health services in March and April, asking that they continue to make adjustments, including allowing remote working where appropriate. All NHS secondary care providers now have access to video consultation technology to deliver some clinical care without the need for in-person contact. General practice has moved from carrying out around 90% of consultations as face-to-face appointments to managing more than 85% of consultations remotely.
To support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, the Oak National Academy launched on 20 April - a brand-new enterprise created by 40 teachers from some of the leading schools across England, backed by government grant funding.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason he has included employees of Magnox Ltd in the consultation on the redundancy compensation cap for public sector workers.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The scope of the cap is guided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) independent classification of public sector bodies. The ONS determines whether a body falls within the public sector by reference to objective criteria based upon governance, funding, ownership and function. Magnox Ltd is classified as a public sector body by the ONS classification guide.
We are undertaking staged implementation of the cap, with the first stage capturing: the UK Civil Service, non-departmental public bodies, executive agencies, non-ministerial departments, the National Health Service, academy schools, local government, and police forces. The cap on exit payments will then be extended to the rest of the public sector including Magnox Ltd, as guided by ONS classification, in due course.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2018 to Question 133821 on Children: Day Care, what advice his Department has provided to the Northern Ireland parties and the Northern Ireland Civil Service based on the experience of developing and administering the 30 hours free childcare policy in England.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
HM Treasury, the Department for Education and HM Revenue & Customs met with the Northern Ireland Department of Education in June to discuss the experience of developing and administering the 30 hours free childcare policy in England.
To reflect concerns about the timing of the closure of childcare vouchers and the transition to Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) raised in the debate in April, the government took the decision to keep childcare vouchers open for a further six months until October. This has allowed more time for TFC to bed in, for awareness to increase and for families to understand the support they can receive under the scheme.
HM Revenue and Customs have been making improvements to the childcare service since it was launched in April 2017. Over the last four months they have provided over 99% of parents with an eligibility decision within 5 working days; reduced the number of problems that parents experienced, meaning that less than 1% of parents now see an error screen whilst applying or using their account; and made improvements to the customer experience. As a result, there has been an increase in parent satisfaction to over 80%.
The government has increased communications about TFC and the Childcare Choices website. As a result, we have seen a rise in the number of visitors to the sites. Communications activity will increase further in September at the start of the new school year, with a marketing campaign in the autumn to support take up of TFC.
All public-sector workers in the UK who meet the eligibility criteria for TFC will be able to claim government support for 20% of their childcare costs, up to an annual maximum of £2,000 for each child. We are working to make sure all parents, including those in the public sector, are aware of this support and how to access it. Ministers and officials have also met with interested stakeholders across the UK.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Autumn Budget 2017, paragraph 6.27, what his policy is on public sector pay awards in financial year 2018-19 for employees not covered by an independent Pay Review Body.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Workforces not covered by pay review bodies include local government, the fire service and the majority of civil servants. Central government has no role in setting pay awards for Local Authority workers or the fire services. These are considered by the National Joint Council, for Local Government Services, and the National Joint Council for Local Authority Fire and Rescue Services respectively. Pay policy for the civil service (excluding senior civil servants) will be set in the usual way through the remit guidance for 2018-19.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what proportion of civil service posts in his Department was vacant for a week or longer since his Department was established; and what the turnover rate for civil servants in his Department has been in that period.
Answered by Steve Baker - Minister of State (Northern Ireland Office)
The Department for Exiting the European Union does not centrally hold information on vacancies week by week. The Department undertakes regular resource reviews to ensure that we are appropriately resourced to deal with the task at hand.
Since the creation of DExEU, 165 individuals have left the Department. The Department has adopted a flexible and adaptable resourcing model and a significant proportion of this total represents the contractual exit of agency workers, secondees, contractors and fast streamers. The figure also includes a number of planned departures during the Department’s life; including a significant number of individuals who were on short term loan from other Government Departments brought in to aid in the establishment of DExEU.
The Department is recruiting the brightest and the best from across the civil service, the wider public sector and the private sector. The Department now has over 550 staff, and is growing fast.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) mean and (b) median pay was for staff in his Department who were (i) male, (ii) female, (iii) white, (iv) from an ethnic minority background, (v) disabled and (vi) non-disabled in the most recent year for which information is available, broken down by (A) full-time and (B) part-time workers.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The Civil Service has been publishing mean and median gender pay gaps for each Department since 2008 as part of the annual release of Civil Service Statistics by the Office for National Statistics. The latest gender pay gap data (published in October 2016) can be found on the Office for National Statistics website at:
To meet the Department's obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, introduced by the Equality Act 2010, to provide information on its workforce, the Department publishes Equal Pay Audits, these can be found on the Gov.uk website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-equal-pay-audit-reports-index