To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion
of organisations that hold contracts with his Department pay the National Living Wage.
<p>This question would be a disproportionate cost to answer, as we do not hold this
information centrally. However, as this is a statutory requirement, our expectation
is that 100% of organisations that hold contracts with the department will be paying
the National Living Wage. If the department identified any organisation that was in
breach, we would engage with them to ensure legal compliance.</p>
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>