Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment has been made of the number of people employed in contracts without guaranteed hours who have been refused credit because of their employment.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has published its Impact Assessments for the Bill. Without guaranteed hours, workers are without certainty as to their earnings, making it difficult to apply for credit or a mortgage. The new right to guaranteed hours aims to ensure that all jobs provide a baseline of security and predictability - making it easier for qualifying workers to plan their lives and finances.
Consumer credit firms regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must follow the FCA’s detailed rules on affordability checks. FCA rules mean that firms should only lend to consumers who can afford repayments and this should be based on a careful assessment of their income, spending, and financial commitments. These rules aim to prevent over-indebtedness, promote responsible lending, and ensure fair treatment of customers.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he has taken to protect university workers' terms and conditions when they are transferred to a subsidiary company.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
When a business changes its owner, its employees may be protected under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE). TUPE may also apply when a service transfers to a new provider. If TUPE applies, the employees’ jobs usually transfer over to the new company, and their employment terms and conditions transfer. The new employer cannot change an employee’s terms and conditions if the reason is the transfer itself.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has she made of the use of car washes in money laundering activity.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government takes illegal working and worker exploitation very seriously and is committed to tackling non-compliance in high-risk sectors, including car washes. Immigration Enforcement activity has intensified over the past year, with enforcement teams carrying out over 11,000 visits to businesses across all sectors suspected of using illegal workers, marking a 51% increase. These resulted in more than 8,000 arrests, a 63% increase on the same period 12 months prior.
These figures demonstrate that enforcement is having a significant impact in disrupting this illegal activity. However, challenges remain, including the informal nature of the sector. To strengthen outcomes, the forthcoming Fair Work Agency will bring a cross-government response to improve intelligence sharing to increase co-ordination across enforcement bodes.
The Government recognises that car washes can present a risk of being exploited for money laundering and other illicit financial activity. Recent enforcement activity led by the National Crime Agency (Operation MACHINIZE) has identified links between some car washes being used for money laundering and grey economy. As part of targeted enforcement, the National Crime Agency works closely with law enforcement partners, including immigration enforcement to disrupt these activities and strengthen compliance. This approach forms part of a wider strategy to tackle organised crime, protect vulnerable workers, and ensure the integrity of the financial system.
Civil penalties for illegal working remain the principal sanctions for tackling non-compliance and are designed to hold non-compliant employers to account and disrupt illegal working activity. The Home Office will actively pursue debt recovery action in every case. If the employer does not pay the penalty in full or by instalments when due, the penalty will be passed to our external specialist debt recovery agents, registered with the civil court, after which enforcement action will commence. This includes a pre-legal and legal debt recovery strategy where enforcement officers have the powers to apply a range of additional tools including Charging Orders, Attachment of Earnings, Third Party Debt Orders and Orders to Obtain Information.
The Home Office publishes online, on a quarterly basis, details of all employers who have been found liable for a civil penalty and have not paid or are not making regular payments towards the penalty.
Immigration Enforcement acts on intelligence and applies sanctions where immigration offences occur, including civil penalties up to £60,000 per illegal worker, criminal convictions with up to 5 years’ imprisonment, business closure, director disqualification, loss of sponsorship rights, and seizure of illegal earnings. We also work closely with the Insolvency Service to hold non-compliant directors to account and consider them for disqualification. Migrants working illegally face up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment (England and Wales) or 6 months (Scotland and Northern Ireland) and/or a fine.
The Home Office does not hold centrally collated data on the number of car washes that have been permanently closed or the number of owners jailed for employing illegal workers in each year.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, many car washes found to employ illegal workers have (a) been permanently closed and (b) led to the owners jailed in each year for which information is available.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government takes illegal working and worker exploitation very seriously and is committed to tackling non-compliance in high-risk sectors, including car washes. Immigration Enforcement activity has intensified over the past year, with enforcement teams carrying out over 11,000 visits to businesses across all sectors suspected of using illegal workers, marking a 51% increase. These resulted in more than 8,000 arrests, a 63% increase on the same period 12 months prior.
These figures demonstrate that enforcement is having a significant impact in disrupting this illegal activity. However, challenges remain, including the informal nature of the sector. To strengthen outcomes, the forthcoming Fair Work Agency will bring a cross-government response to improve intelligence sharing to increase co-ordination across enforcement bodes.
The Government recognises that car washes can present a risk of being exploited for money laundering and other illicit financial activity. Recent enforcement activity led by the National Crime Agency (Operation MACHINIZE) has identified links between some car washes being used for money laundering and grey economy. As part of targeted enforcement, the National Crime Agency works closely with law enforcement partners, including immigration enforcement to disrupt these activities and strengthen compliance. This approach forms part of a wider strategy to tackle organised crime, protect vulnerable workers, and ensure the integrity of the financial system.
Civil penalties for illegal working remain the principal sanctions for tackling non-compliance and are designed to hold non-compliant employers to account and disrupt illegal working activity. The Home Office will actively pursue debt recovery action in every case. If the employer does not pay the penalty in full or by instalments when due, the penalty will be passed to our external specialist debt recovery agents, registered with the civil court, after which enforcement action will commence. This includes a pre-legal and legal debt recovery strategy where enforcement officers have the powers to apply a range of additional tools including Charging Orders, Attachment of Earnings, Third Party Debt Orders and Orders to Obtain Information.
The Home Office publishes online, on a quarterly basis, details of all employers who have been found liable for a civil penalty and have not paid or are not making regular payments towards the penalty.
Immigration Enforcement acts on intelligence and applies sanctions where immigration offences occur, including civil penalties up to £60,000 per illegal worker, criminal convictions with up to 5 years’ imprisonment, business closure, director disqualification, loss of sponsorship rights, and seizure of illegal earnings. We also work closely with the Insolvency Service to hold non-compliant directors to account and consider them for disqualification. Migrants working illegally face up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment (England and Wales) or 6 months (Scotland and Northern Ireland) and/or a fine.
The Home Office does not hold centrally collated data on the number of car washes that have been permanently closed or the number of owners jailed for employing illegal workers in each year.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has she made of the effectiveness of enforcement on illegal car washes.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government takes illegal working and worker exploitation very seriously and is committed to tackling non-compliance in high-risk sectors, including car washes. Immigration Enforcement activity has intensified over the past year, with enforcement teams carrying out over 11,000 visits to businesses across all sectors suspected of using illegal workers, marking a 51% increase. These resulted in more than 8,000 arrests, a 63% increase on the same period 12 months prior.
These figures demonstrate that enforcement is having a significant impact in disrupting this illegal activity. However, challenges remain, including the informal nature of the sector. To strengthen outcomes, the forthcoming Fair Work Agency will bring a cross-government response to improve intelligence sharing to increase co-ordination across enforcement bodes.
The Government recognises that car washes can present a risk of being exploited for money laundering and other illicit financial activity. Recent enforcement activity led by the National Crime Agency (Operation MACHINIZE) has identified links between some car washes being used for money laundering and grey economy. As part of targeted enforcement, the National Crime Agency works closely with law enforcement partners, including immigration enforcement to disrupt these activities and strengthen compliance. This approach forms part of a wider strategy to tackle organised crime, protect vulnerable workers, and ensure the integrity of the financial system.
Civil penalties for illegal working remain the principal sanctions for tackling non-compliance and are designed to hold non-compliant employers to account and disrupt illegal working activity. The Home Office will actively pursue debt recovery action in every case. If the employer does not pay the penalty in full or by instalments when due, the penalty will be passed to our external specialist debt recovery agents, registered with the civil court, after which enforcement action will commence. This includes a pre-legal and legal debt recovery strategy where enforcement officers have the powers to apply a range of additional tools including Charging Orders, Attachment of Earnings, Third Party Debt Orders and Orders to Obtain Information.
The Home Office publishes online, on a quarterly basis, details of all employers who have been found liable for a civil penalty and have not paid or are not making regular payments towards the penalty.
Immigration Enforcement acts on intelligence and applies sanctions where immigration offences occur, including civil penalties up to £60,000 per illegal worker, criminal convictions with up to 5 years’ imprisonment, business closure, director disqualification, loss of sponsorship rights, and seizure of illegal earnings. We also work closely with the Insolvency Service to hold non-compliant directors to account and consider them for disqualification. Migrants working illegally face up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment (England and Wales) or 6 months (Scotland and Northern Ireland) and/or a fine.
The Home Office does not hold centrally collated data on the number of car washes that have been permanently closed or the number of owners jailed for employing illegal workers in each year.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to collect unpaid fines levied on car washes caught employing illegal workers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government takes illegal working and worker exploitation very seriously and is committed to tackling non-compliance in high-risk sectors, including car washes. Immigration Enforcement activity has intensified over the past year, with enforcement teams carrying out over 11,000 visits to businesses across all sectors suspected of using illegal workers, marking a 51% increase. These resulted in more than 8,000 arrests, a 63% increase on the same period 12 months prior.
These figures demonstrate that enforcement is having a significant impact in disrupting this illegal activity. However, challenges remain, including the informal nature of the sector. To strengthen outcomes, the forthcoming Fair Work Agency will bring a cross-government response to improve intelligence sharing to increase co-ordination across enforcement bodes.
The Government recognises that car washes can present a risk of being exploited for money laundering and other illicit financial activity. Recent enforcement activity led by the National Crime Agency (Operation MACHINIZE) has identified links between some car washes being used for money laundering and grey economy. As part of targeted enforcement, the National Crime Agency works closely with law enforcement partners, including immigration enforcement to disrupt these activities and strengthen compliance. This approach forms part of a wider strategy to tackle organised crime, protect vulnerable workers, and ensure the integrity of the financial system.
Civil penalties for illegal working remain the principal sanctions for tackling non-compliance and are designed to hold non-compliant employers to account and disrupt illegal working activity. The Home Office will actively pursue debt recovery action in every case. If the employer does not pay the penalty in full or by instalments when due, the penalty will be passed to our external specialist debt recovery agents, registered with the civil court, after which enforcement action will commence. This includes a pre-legal and legal debt recovery strategy where enforcement officers have the powers to apply a range of additional tools including Charging Orders, Attachment of Earnings, Third Party Debt Orders and Orders to Obtain Information.
The Home Office publishes online, on a quarterly basis, details of all employers who have been found liable for a civil penalty and have not paid or are not making regular payments towards the penalty.
Immigration Enforcement acts on intelligence and applies sanctions where immigration offences occur, including civil penalties up to £60,000 per illegal worker, criminal convictions with up to 5 years’ imprisonment, business closure, director disqualification, loss of sponsorship rights, and seizure of illegal earnings. We also work closely with the Insolvency Service to hold non-compliant directors to account and consider them for disqualification. Migrants working illegally face up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment (England and Wales) or 6 months (Scotland and Northern Ireland) and/or a fine.
The Home Office does not hold centrally collated data on the number of car washes that have been permanently closed or the number of owners jailed for employing illegal workers in each year.