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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to page 149 of the report UK Poverty: Causes and Solutions, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 6 September 2016, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing the Low Pay Commission's compliance and operational proposals in full.

The Government carefully considers all Low Pay Commission recommendations. We continue to strengthen our enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, including the three areas identified in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report.

For example, we have increased resources available for enforcement – to £20 million in 2016/17, increasing to £25.3m for 2017/18.

Last year, HMRC identified a record £10.9 million in arrears for 98,000 workers.

Tougher penalties for non-compliance were introduced in April 2016 – underpayments occurring since then are subject to a penalty of 200% the value of the arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker.