To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant
to the oral answer of the Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility
on 4 June 2019, Official Report, column 53, what the evidential basis is for her statement
that in 2019, £118 million has been paid back to more than 220,000 workers who were
underpaid the minimum wage.
<p>We are committed to taking robust enforcement action to ensure that everyone who
is entitled to the National Minimum or Living Wage receives it.</p><p> </p><p>We have
more than doubled the budget for minimum wage compliance and enforcement since 2015;
it is now at a record high of £27.4 million.</p><p> </p><p>To clarify, since 1999,
minimum wage arrears worth over £118 million have been paid to 835,000 workers. In
the year 2018/19 alone, £24.4m of wage arrears were identified, owed to more than
220,000 workers.</p><p> </p><p>The transcript error within the Official Report has
now been corrected.</p>
