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 his Department's press release entitled Record 22,400 minimum wage workers to receive millions in backpay, what proportion of those 22,400 workers received backpay as a result of unpaid work trials.

Information on the most common reasons for underpayment were given in the press notice referred to. Information is not held centrally on the number of workers underpaid through exploitative work trials. In many HMRC investigations a variety of risks of underpayment will exist with a single employer.

Any worker who thinks they may have been underpaid the National Minimum Wage should contact Acas. The Government will bring forward new measures to address exploitative unpaid work trials shortly.