Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the National Minimum Wage Compliance Unit of HM Revenue and Customs requires its compliance caseworkers and compliance managers to work full-time.

The Government are determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) receives it. Anyone who feels they have been underpaid NMW or NLW should contact the Acas helpline on 0300 123 1100. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) review all complaints that are referred to them.

The Government has more than trebled annual funding of minimum wage enforcement since 2014, providing a total budget of £25.3m in 2017-18. The additional investment has enabled a significant expansion of resources dedicated to enforcing the minimum wage.

Any HMRC employee can request flexible working, including part time hours and job sharing. Initial training for new recruits is usually delivered on a full-time basis during their induction. In recruitment campaigns, we make clear that full-time training may be required during the initial training period. This is due to the level of face-to-face training needed. For existing part-time staff, once induction training is completed, any future training can usually be offered on a part-time basis and we plan our training to fit with working patterns as far as possible.

As at 1 April 2017, there were 399 staff in post in HMRC’s NMW teams and 83 vacancies. Staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing NMW and NLW, including lawyers, technical advisers, and those specialising in criminal investigations. HMRC does not record the specific numbers of those staff involved beyond those identified above.

HMRC does not hold data in the format required to answer the question on average time to fill vacancies within these teams.