Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding has been allocated to HMRC to enforce breaches of (a) national minimum wage, (b) coronavirus job retention scheme payments in Budget 2021 compared to (i) the last financial year and (ii) the next three years.

All businesses are responsible for paying the correct minimum wage to their staff. Since 2015-16, the Government has more than doubled the budget for compliance and enforcement of the national minimum wage, rising to £27.5 million for 2021-22. The compliance and enforcement budgets for future financial years will be confirmed in due course.

At Spring Budget 2021, the Government announced the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to expand HMRC’s enforcement activities and tackle non-compliance across the COVID-19 support initiatives.  For 2021-22, the Taskforce received £27 million to undertake additional enforcement activity, rising to £55 million for 2022-23.