Manufacturing Industries: Clothing

(asked on 19th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for non-payment of the national minimum wage to garment factory workers since 1 January 2016.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 27th October 2020

HMRC enforces 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 the NMW when deciding whether to pursue prosecution. Consequently, 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.

There have been no prosecutions or convictions for the non-payment of the NMW to textile factory workers since 1 January 2016.

However, between 1 January 2016 and 19 October 2020 HMRC’s NMW team has investigated more than 100 textile trade employers recovering over £190,000 in wage arrears for over 400 textile workers, and issued penalties amounting to over £330,000.

HMRC recognise that there are a range of cross-agency risks in the textile sector supply chain, and have participated in a number of joint operations with other Government departments including the Gangmasters Labour Abuse Authority, Police, the Health & Safety Executive, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, Department for Work and Pensions and the National Crime Agency, to investigate all forms of labour exploitation.

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