Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HMRC has expended on national minimum wage enforcement in (a) total and (b) each region for each year since the financial year 2009-10.

The Government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) receives it.

HMRC enforce 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).

HMRC investigate all complaints from workers referred by the Acas helpline, or received via the online complaints form.

The total number of staff employed by HMRC since 2009-2010 to carry out National Minimum Wage enforcement is provided in the table below.

There are also additional staff across HMRC who contribute to enforcing the NMW including lawyers, technical advisers, and those specialising in criminal investigations. These staff are not included in the numbers outlined above.

HMRC do not hold accurate data on regional staff numbers going back to 2009-10. However, most recently, for 2019-20 there were 442 full-time equivalent NMW enforcement staff working from 22 locations in 12 regions across the country:

As a national operation, it is common for staff based in one region to work cases in another.

The Government has been increasing funding for NMW enforcement year-on-year. This has enabled a significant expansion of resources dedicated to enforcing the minimum wage.

The table below provides a yearly breakdown of funding received for NMW enforcement from 2009/10 to 2020/21.

It is not possible to provide an accurate regional breakdown of the NMW enforcement budget.