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1130344

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The Government is clear that all employers are responsible for paying their staff correctly. Anyone entitled to the Minimum Wage should receive it. 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>Last year was a record year for NMW enforcement. Across the 2018/19 financial year HMRC identified a record £24.4 million in minimum wage arrears, for over 220,000 workers. HMRC completed almost 3,000 investigations; issuing £17 million in financial penalties to over 1,000 non-compliant employers.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2007, 14 employers have been successfully prosecuted for underpaying the Minimum Wage. HMRC issued 7 Labour Market Enforcement Undertakings in the 2018/19 financial year.</p><p> </p><p>This information will be covered in more detail in BEIS’ Minimum Wage Enforcement and Compliance report, which we will publish in due course.</p>
	tabling member	4607 label Biography information for Stephanie Peacock

1130369

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The Insolvency Service publishes quarterly statistics containing the number of new company liquidations in England and Wales; Scotland; and Northern Ireland. This is broken down into compulsory liquidations and creditors’ voluntary liquidations. The most recent statistics, covering the period January to March 2019, were published on 30 April 2019 on gov.uk.</p>
	tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1130141

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <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>
	tabling member	4607 label Biography information for Stephanie Peacock

1130150

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The Government is committed to creating a labour market that works for everyone. Through the Good Work Plan - the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation - we set out a number of measures to improve state enforcement of core employment rights. In addition to introducing state enforcement of holiday pay for vulnerable workers, we also committed to expand agency worker protections to cover umbrella companies. In light of this expansion of the State’s role, we will consider the case for a single labour market enforcement body, which would bring together the relevant enforcement functions of the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, HMRC’s National Minimum Wage team and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate. Proposals will be published in due coursefor public consultation.</p>
	tabling member	4607 label Biography information for Stephanie Peacock

1130166

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The Government is committed to enforcing the National Minimum Wage (NMW). In 2018/19, HM Revenue &amp; Customs (HMRC) identified a record £24.4 million in arrears for over 220,000 workers and issued over £17 million in penalties to non-compliant employers. We have more than doubled HMRC’s budget for NMW compliance and enforcement since 2015 to £27.4 million for 2019/20.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will resume naming employers found underpaying the NMW. We are reviewing the Naming Scheme to ensure that it continues to effectively support NMW compliance. We will conclude the review during the summer and publish any resulting effects on the operation of the Naming Scheme through the NMW Enforcement policy documents.</p><p> </p><p>We are reviewing the Naming Scheme in response to recommendations made by the Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME), Professor Sir David Metcalf</p>
	tabling member	4607 label Biography information for Stephanie Peacock

1129797

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The Government recognises the critical role that post offices play in communities and for small businesses across the UK. This is why the Government committed to safeguard the post office network and protect existing rural services. The overall number of post offices across the UK remains at its most stable in decades with over 11,500 branches thanks to significant Government investment of over £2 billion since 2010.</p><p> </p><p>While the Government sets the strategic direction for the Post Office, it allows the company the commercial freedom to deliver this strategy as an independent business. The number of Post Office card accounts active or opened in each of the last five years are operational matters for Post Office Limited. I have therefore asked Alisdair Cameron, the Group interim Chief Executive of Post Office Limited, to write to the Hon. Member on this matter. A copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of the House.</p>
	tabling member	4440 label Biography information for Marion Fellows

1128871

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>The UK is a world leader in cutting emissions while creating wealth. Between 1990 and 2017, the UK reduced its emissions by over 40 per cent while growing the economy by more than two thirds. The Clean Growth Strategy sets out our plans to build on our progress in decarbonising the power sector, while looking further across the whole of the economy and the country. It includes ambitious proposals on housing, business, transport, the natural environment and green finance. We have not made any assessment of the impact of working shorter hours on climate change.</p><p> </p><p>The Government does, though, continue to support flexible working practices, as part of our commitment to ensuring that everyone can access fair and decent work as set out in the Good Work Plan. For example, all employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service with their employer have the right to request Flexible Working. We have also committed to consult on a new duty on employers to consider when a job can be done flexibly, and make that clear when advertising.</p>
	tabling member	1436 label Biography information for Paul Farrelly

1128917

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>BEIS Ministers and officials engage regularly with representatives of Post Office Limited on a range of strategic issues of mutual interest. While the Post Office is publicly owned, it is a commercial business operating in competitive markets. The Government sets the strategic direction for the Post Office – to maintain a national network accessible to all and to do so more sustainably for the taxpayer – and allows the company the commercial freedom to deliver this strategy as an independent business. Therefore, issues relating to the Post Office network, including Crown Post Offices and franchising agreements with WHSmith, are all operational matters for Post Office Limited.</p><p>Most of the UK’s Post Office network of over 11,500 branches (almost 98%) already operates successfully on a franchise or agency basis. Research by Citizens Advice (June 2017) found that franchised branches are delivering to the same, or better, standards.</p>
	tabling member	360 label Biography information for Lord Coaker

1128918

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p>Government subsidy ensures that branches serving our rural communities that need additional support receive it so that they can stay open.</p><p> </p><p>Government subsidy has been declining in recent years; this reflects the progress that the business has made. Post Office Limited returned to profit after 16 years of losses and has thereby reduced its reliance on the taxpayer.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has provided the following funding to the Post Office over the last five years:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Network Subsidy Payment (£ million)</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Investment funding</strong> <strong>(£ million)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014/15</p></td><td><p>160</p></td><td><p>170</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015/16</p></td><td><p>130</p></td><td><p>150</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016/17</p></td><td><p>80</p></td><td><p>140</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017/18</p></td><td><p>70</p></td><td><p>70</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018/19</p></td><td><p>60</p></td><td><p>168</p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p>
	tabling member	360 label Biography information for Lord Coaker

1128919

	answering dept short name	Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
	type	WrittenParliamentaryQuestion
	answer	answer answer text <p><strong>Draft Answer</strong></p><p>Between 2010 and 2018 the Government provided nearly £2 billion to maintain and invest in our national network. This led to the most stable Post Office network in a generation, with 93% of the population living within 1 mile and over 99% within three miles of their nearest branch.</p><p> </p><p>The funding was split into investment funding to support the modernisation of the network and the business and subsidy payment to sustain those branches that are not sustainable on a commercial basis. Government investment has also enabled the modernisation of over 7,500 branches, added more than 200,000 opening hours per week and established the Post Office as the largest network trading on Sunday.</p><p> </p><p>The current Funding Agreement between BEIS and Post Office Limited runs until the end of March 2021. The funding provided by Government over FY 2019/20 &amp; 2020/21 is as per below:</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Network Subsidy Payment (£ million)</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Investment funding</strong> <strong>(£ million)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019/20</p></td><td><p>50</p></td><td><p>42</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020/21</p></td><td><p>50</p></td><td><p>-</p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p>
	tabling member	360 label Biography information for Lord Coaker