Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to protect workers in (a) the social care sector and (b) other sectors from exploitative employment practices following the March 2021 decision of the Supreme Court that social care staff are not entitled to the national minimum wage for every hour of sleep-in shifts.

The Supreme Court’s unanimous judgment published on 19 March provides legal clarity. The Government has published updated guidance on sleep-in shifts and the National Minimum Wage, which applies to all sectors of the economy throughout the UK.

HM Revenue and Customs is responsible for enforcing National Minimum Wage legislation, and since 2015 has ordered employers to pay arrears of £100 million to one million workers. HMRC follows up on every worker complaint received, even those which are anonymous. This includes complaints made via the online complaint form or the Acas helpline and those received from other sources. In recent months, HMRC has also produced and advertised a webinar aimed at helping care providers understand particular issues in the social care sector.

My Hon. Friends the Minister of State for Care and the Minister for Children and Families have written to commissioners of social care services to emphasise that Local Authorities should be working with providers to ensure that they are complying with legislation and also ensuring that care workers are supported and remunerated so to retain a stable workforce.

The Government is also committed to sustainable improvement of the adult social care system and will bring forward proposals later in 2021.