Oral Answers to Questions

David Pinto-Duschinsky Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to his place. We have been in office for two months, and we have already set up the Horizon convictions redress scheme. Indeed, I was pleased to work with the former Minister, the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake), on creating the legal environment necessary to do that. The letters are an issue for the Ministry of Justice and its database. We have not sat on anything, and we have moved at pace to give people the compensation they deserve. We will continue to do that, and to work with those on the Opposition Front Bench to deliver what we all want to see.

[David Pinto-Duschinsky (Hendon) (Lab)]

T3. Many of my constituents in Hendon rely on the national minimum wage, but as we know from research, employers got away with failing to pay that wage to more than one in five workers who were due it under the last Government. Can the Secretary of State tell the House what steps his Department is taking to reverse that shameful legacy of weak enforcement?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Justin Madders)]

The introduction of the minimum wage was one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour Government, but for too long the UK’s labour market enforcement system has been fragmented and ineffective. That is bad for workers and bad for the majority of businesses that want do to the right thing and comply with the law. That is why we will create a fair work agency to bring together employment rights enforcement, including of the minimum wage.