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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with his Cabinet colleagues on cases in which workers do not receive compensation awarded by an employment tribunal because the companies which were paying them less than the national minimum wage have moved into voluntary liquidation.

The Government is committed to the effective enforcement of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and will take tough action where employers are found to have underpaid their staff. BIS Ministers regularly discuss issues of enforcement with colleagues in other relevant Departments to ensure the system is effective.

Ensuring employees get the money they are owed is a priority. Where employees are owed monies but their employer has gone in to liquidation, they are entitled to claim for the difference between their rate of pay and the NMW, through the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service (RPS). The RPS will consider these claims and make payments, within certain statutory limits, to employees.

The Government has also taken action to strengthen the enforcement powers available for NMW breaches, including ensuring that every criminal breach of the NMW Act is considered for Director Disqualification.