Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effects of confidentiality agreements between employers not paying the national minimum wage and their employees challenging that non-payment on the numbers of people coming forward to make a complaint to ACAS.
Nick Boles
Final approved answer for 2016/02785
No assessment has been made on the impact of confidentiality agreements on the identification of National Minimum Wage (NMW) non-compliance.
Confidentiality is an important protection for workers who wish to make a NMW complaint. If any worker is concerned they have not received what they are entitled to they should contact the ACAS helpline on 0300 123 1100 for free and confidential advice. HMRC follow up every complaint referred to them by Acas and compliance officers can investigate without knowledge of the complainant’s identity. In addition to complaint-led work HMRC investigate employers using third-party intelligence and risk-based targeted enforcement in sectors and areas where there is a higher risk of workers being paid below the NMW.
The Government is committed to cracking down on employers who break NMW law. Between April 2015 and November 2015 HMRC took action against over 500 businesses, identifying over £8 million for 46,000 workers. This is already the largest amount of arrears identified in any single year since the introduction of the NMW.
Building on existing reforms, the Prime Minister announced on 1 September 2015 further measures to strengthen the enforcement of the NMW including higher penalties, a dedicated HMRC team to tackle the most serious cases of wilful non-compliance and additional funding for HMRC from April 2016. We have also increased communications so that working people can access support to make complaints in confidence if needed
Table 1: NMW enquiries to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline by trade sector, 2009/10 to 2014/15.
|
Trade Sector |
2009/103 |
2010/11 |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
|
Activities of households as employers |
20 |
20 |
40 |
20 |
20 |
10 |
|
Admin/Office work |
2,530 |
4,410 |
3,910 |
2,950 |
3,310 |
2,390 |
|
Agriculture and related activities |
140 |
100 |
120 |
100 |
110 |
100 |
|
Cleaning services |
440 |
400 |
350 |
320 |
420 |
320 |
|
Construction and related trades |
1,350 |
1,290 |
1,050 |
760 |
1,010 |
810 |
|
Education and teaching |
270 |
370 |
350 |
300 |
540 |
450 |
|
Food processing and packaging |
90 |
40 |
50 |
20 |
30 |
30 |
|
Hairdressing |
1,670 |
1,520 |
1,360 |
930 |
1,040 |
730 |
|
Health, social work and child care |
1,590 |
1,750 |
1,590 |
1,430 |
2,090 |
1,930 |
|
Hospitality |
1,880 |
1,580 |
1,560 |
1,400 |
1,780 |
1,340 |
|
Information technology and communication |
150 |
170 |
180 |
120 |
240 |
150 |
|
Modelling, entertainment, recreation |
90 |
90 |
110 |
80 |
160 |
50 |
|
Other manufacturing |
240 |
200 |
150 |
140 |
140 |
120 |
|
Security services |
240 |
170 |
140 |
120 |
150 |
110 |
|
Shellfish gathering |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
– |
|
Taxi/minicab services |
60 |
40 |
30 |
30 |
30 |
20 |
|
Textiles |
30 |
10 |
20 |
20 |
80 |
30 |
|
Training Provider |
– |
– |
– |
– |
70 |
70 |
|
Transport (other than Taxi/mini-cab) |
350 |
380 |
280 |
270 |
440 |
260 |
|
Warehousing, storage and distribution |
490 |
440 |
420 |
340 |
360 |
310 |
|
Wholesale and retail trade |
1,580 |
1,560 |
1,550 |
1,150 |
1,470 |
930 |
|
Other |
4,980 |
3,880 |
2,590 |
1,980 |
2,780 |
2,210 |
|
Not Known |
3,580 |
2,190 |
5,020 |
5,350 |
5,210 |
7,180 |
|
Total |
21,700 |
20,600 |
20,900 |
17,800 |
21,500 |
19,500 |
Source: Pay and Workers Rights Helpline and the Acas Helpline
Notes:
- Calls to the helpline are in part driven by NMW policy announcements and communications activity.
- Sector level figures are rounded to the nearest 10, totals are rounded to the nearest 100.
- Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2009/10 as the Helpline opened in May 2009.
Since the 1st April 2015, the Acas Helpline has, in addition to its usual services, been answering queries previously handled by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.
Provisional in-year data for 2015/16 show there have been 9,800 queries relating to NMW legislation to the Acas Helpline and 3,700 queries relating to non-payment/deductions from NMW. Information on the number of NMW enquiries by trade sector is not collected on a comparable basis as Acas do not ask callers to disclose information about the sector worked in. Therefore, Acas only record this information when a caller chooses to provide it.
Table 1: The number of NMW related calls received by Acas, 2011/12 to 2015/16.
|
Query topic |
2011/12 |
2012/13 |
2013/14 |
2014/15 |
2015/164 |
|
NMW |
4,400 |
3,800 |
3,800 |
4,400 |
9,800 |
|
Non-Payment/Deductions from NMW |
2,000 |
2,500 |
2,900 |
3,100 |
3,700 |
Source: Acas
Notes
- Figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
- One call may be counted as both a ‘NMW’ and ‘Non-payment/Deductions from NMW’ issue. A caller may enquire about the NMW rates and then raise a NMW underpayment issue therefore these categories should not be added together as it will involve double counting.
- For years earlier than 2015/16, a proportion of calls would have been referred to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline.
- Reporting years are based on April to March, with the exception of 2015/16 which covers April 2015 to January 2016, the latest period for which information is available.
