Emily Thornberry – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2014-04-30.

To ask the Attorney General, how many cases of non-payment of the minimum wage were (a) referred to the Crown Prosecution Service from HM Revenue and Customs, (b) prosecuted and (c) prosecuted successfully in 2013-14 and each of the preceding three financial years.

Oliver Heald

Based on data held centrally by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) together with information provided by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which has responsibility for enforcing the law in relation to the National Minimum Wage, I have established (a) three referrals were made to the CPS from HMRC in 2010-2011. No referrals were made in the financial years 2011-2012, 2012-2013 or 2013-2014. (b) One prosecution commenced in 2011-2012 from the three cases referred in 2010-2011. (c) One conviction is recorded in 2010-2011 (referred in 2009/10) and one conviction in 2012-2013 (referred in 2010/11). This information represents the period of 2013-14 and the preceding three financial years.

HMRC also has civil enforcement powers to secure and punish in cases of non-compliance.