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Written question asked by Lord Christopher (Labour) on Tuesday, 9 December 2014, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 23 December 2014. It was answered by Lord Deighton (Conservative) on Monday, 22 December 2014 on behalf of the Treasury.

Minimum Wage

Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many visits were made to employers in each year from 2010 to 2013 and in the first nine months of 2014 to check that the minimum wage was being properly paid; and what were the results of those checks in each of those years.

Answer

The Government takes the enforcement of National Minimum Wage very seriously and has increased the financial penalty percentage from 50% to 100% of the unpaid wages owed to workers, and the maximum penalty from £5,000 to £20,000. These new limits are now in force where arrears are identified in pay reference periods on or after 7 March 2014. The Government will also bring in primary legislation as soon as possible so that the maximum £20,000 penalty can apply to each underpaid worker.

HMRC reviews every complaint that is referred to it, investigating the complaint and, in addition, carrying out targeted enforcement where we identify a high risk of non-payment of NMW.

HMRC record completed investigations but these do not include details of the numbers of visits. Some investigations may require several visits and others may be completed without any. HMRC completed 1455 investigations last year identifying record arrears of over £4.6 million. Full details for 2010 to 2014 are contained in the table below. We do not typically disclose results mid-way through a year; this is because the results have not been internally verified.

Year

2010-11

2011-12

2012-13

2013-14

Arrears

£3,818,396

£3,582,685

£3,974,008

£4,645,547

Investigations

2,904

2,534

1,693

1,455

Cases with arrears

1,140

968

736

680

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL3596
Session
2014-15
Subjects
Enforcement Minimum wage
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk