Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many employers have been convicted of offences related to under-payment of the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage in the last two years.
HMRC enforce the National Minimum?Wage (NMW)?and?National Living Wage (NLW) in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
Breaches of NMW legislation are normally a civil (non-criminal) matter which attract penalties of up to 200% of the identified wage arrears and public naming.
Prosecutions can be lengthy and cause delays in recovering arrears for workers and do not necessarily guarantee payment. HMRC therefore balance recovering NMW arrears for workers as quickly as possible with the robust enforcement of NMW when deciding whether to pursue prosecution. Prosecution is reserved for the most serious NMW offences involving obstruction, falsifying of documents or wilful failure to pay workers the minimum wage, and such cases are referred to the CPS who decide whether to prosecute.
In the last two years (2018/19 – 2019/20), HMRC have completed nearly 6,400 NMW investigations, identifying over £45 million in arrears for nearly 485,000 workers, issuing over £35.5 million in penalties, and resulting in one conviction.