National Minimum Wage: Sports Direct Debate

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Department: Department for Education

National Minimum Wage: Sports Direct

Tom Brake Excerpts
Monday 14th December 2015

(8 years, 4 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Nick Boles Portrait Nick Boles
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That is absolutely right. That has happened because the majority Conservative Government have run the economy sufficiently well that we can expect employers to do that and still prosper.

Tom Brake Portrait Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)
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The Minister has pointed out that HMRC conducts risk-based enforcement in sectors where there is a high risk of workers not getting paid the legal minimum wage. Is the sector in which Sports Direct operates a high-risk sector? If so, how many proactive initiatives has HMRC launched in it?

Nick Boles Portrait Nick Boles
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The targeted sectors are those where low pay is prevalent and where many employers are therefore close to the minimum wage boundary and those where there have been significant breaches in the past and where there is therefore good reason to expect other such breaches in the future. I cannot tell the right hon. Gentleman how many such investigations there have been, but I am happy to write to him and place a copy in the Library.