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91677

	registered interest
	date	12/09/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Home Care Services: Pay
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to tackle non-payment of the national minimum wage in the home care sector; and what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the estimate of the numbers not in receipt of the national minimum wage in paragraph 2.20 of the National Audit Office report, Adult social care in England: overview, HC 1102.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	209189
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/10/2014 answer text <p>The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and the effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has collaborated with care sector representative bodies to improve understanding of compliance risks and design controls within payroll systems that prevent workers being underpaid the minimum wage, in order to improve compliance.</p><p> </p><p>Guidance on Gov.uk has been updated to make it as clear as possible that travel time and rest breaks between assignments must be paid at least the national minimum wage (NMW).</p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Government will continue to work with the sector to ensure that understanding improves. This will include the Department of Health’s statutory guidance as part of the overall guidance on market shaping and commissioning the final version of which will be published in Autumn 2014.</p><p> </p><p>We have considered the National Audit Office report and note that their estimates come from a self-reported survey of care workers. Examination of surveys of individuals (such as the Labour Force Survey) find that some people tend to report longer working hours and a lower hourly rate compared to those reported by employers who pay the minimum wage.</p><p> </p><p>The current best estimate of non-compliance is derived from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)[1]. The Low Pay Commission[2] published the proportion of jobs held by those aged 22 and over, paid below the NMW by sector. Figures show that non-compliance is relatively low in social care (0.8%) compared with other sectors. This is generally in line with non-compliance in the whole economy.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>This estimate, as well as all estimates of non-compliance, has some limitations. However, there are no reasons to suppose that these limitations affect the social care sector more or less than the econom<ins class="ministerial">y</ins> <ins class="ministerial">as a whole.</ins></p><p> </p><p>[1] ASHE is a survey of employees completed by employers which we can use to look at workers earning at or below the NMW rate.</p><p>[2]<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288841/The_National_Minimum_Wage_LPC_Report_2014.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288841/The_National_Minimum_Wage_LPC_Report_2014.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 13/10/2014 14:26:37 question first ministerially corrected 13/10/2014 15:49:32 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson previous answer version 21455 answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

100843

	registered interest
	date	24/10/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Social Services: Pay
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the merits of HM Revenue and Customs launching pro-active investigations into the non-payment of the national minimum wage.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	211865
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/11/2014 answer text <p>The Government has not undertaken a formal assessment of the merits of pro-active investigations but believes they are an important part of enforcement.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>HMRC published findings from their targeted social care evaluation on 25 November 2013. Over the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2013, HMRC had made enquiries into 224 employers in the social care sector. Of the cases completed by the end of September 2014, HMRC have found non-compliance in 108 (48%) of their enquiries, identifying £1,319,729 arrears of pay for 6,550 workers, with penalties issued with a total value of £146,931.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As part of this targeted enforcement activity, HMRC have collaborated with care sector representative bodies to improve understanding of compliance risks and design controls within payroll systems that prevent workers being underpaid the minimum wage.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department of Health has recently published statutory guidance for local authorities as part of the package of secondary legislation that accompanies the Care Act. The chapter of statutory guidance on commissioning and market shaping explicitly states that local authorities should have evidence that contract terms, conditions and fee levels will not compromise care providers’ ability to pay at least minimum wages. A copy of the guidance can be found at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-2014-statutory-guidance-for-implementation" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-act-2014-statutory-guidance-for-implementation</a></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Department of Health is asking all Local Authorities to sign up to the Social Care Commitment which incorporates a statement about employer compliance with minimum wage legislation. The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has written out to all its members encouraging them to support the Commitment as a way of raising standards in adult social care.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We regularly update our Guidance on Gov.UK and we will continue to work with the sector to improve understanding and compliance.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Any worker who believes that they are being paid below the minimum wage should call the Pay &amp; Work Rights Helpline on 0800 917 2368. HM Revenue &amp; Customs investigate all complaints.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 03/11/2014 11:47:07 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

101306

	registered interest
	date	28/10/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Home Care Services: Pay
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has taken to take account of the omission of (a) some workers paid below the lower earnings limit and (b) unpaid travel time from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings when using that survey to estimate non-payment of the national minimum wage among homecare workers.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	212198
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2014 answer text <p>The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is an employer based pay survey and provides the most accurate information available from which we can derive non-compliance estimates. Estimates are based on a sample from pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) data and may not include some workers earning below the lower earnings limit. However, following the introduction of Real Time Information, ASHE now includes the majority of those earning below the lower earnings limit.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The HMRC paper “National Minimum Wage compliance in the social care sector” (November 2013) looked at, amongst other things, the issue of unpaid travel time in compliance. It found that unpaid travel time was not the main cause of non-compliance in the sector.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We take non-compliance in the care sector very seriously, and to proactively tackle non-compliance HMRC have collaborated with care sector representative bodies to improve understanding of compliance risks and design controls within payroll systems that prevent workers being underpaid the minimum wage.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government is committed to increasing compliance with minimum wage legislation and effective enforcement of it. Everyone who is entitled to the minimum wage should receive it. Individuals should contact the Pay and Work Rights Helpline on 0800 917 2368. HMRC investigates every complaint made.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 05/11/2014 15:11:25 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

101762

	registered interest
	date	30/10/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Students: Plagiarism
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the number of higher education students purchasing assignment writing services.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	212580
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>This is an issue which the Higher Education sector takes very seriously and where institutions have clear policies in place.</p><p>Institutions are supported in this area by the work of Plagiarism Advice (<a href="http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/" target="_blank">www.plagiarismadvice.org</a>) which was established to address concerns about plagiarism and the authenticity of student work. The sanctions that universities are able to apply to students who attempt to pass off work as their own, when it is not, are serious and significant.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Tunbridge Wells answering member printed Greg Clark grouped question UIN 212825 question first answered 10/11/2014 14:09:25 answering member 1578 label Biography information for Greg Clark
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

102018

	registered interest
	date	31/10/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Students: Plagiarism
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department has (a) considered and (b) taken to ensure that businesses advertising assignment writing services clearly state the potential ramifications for students of portraying such materials as their own work.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	212825
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2014 answer text <p>This is an issue which the Higher Education sector takes very seriously and where institutions have clear policies in place.</p><p>Institutions are supported in this area by the work of Plagiarism Advice (<a href="http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/" target="_blank">www.plagiarismadvice.org</a>) which was established to address concerns about plagiarism and the authenticity of student work. The sanctions that universities are able to apply to students who attempt to pass off work as their own, when it is not, are serious and significant.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Tunbridge Wells answering member printed Greg Clark grouped question UIN 212580 question first answered 10/11/2014 14:09:25 answering member 1578 label Biography information for Greg Clark
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

64170

	registered interest
	date	26/06/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	National Careers Service
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of potential changes in the number of jobs at the National Careers Service arising from the Government's digital-by-default policy.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	202577
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>The new National Careers Service has been designed to respond to the changing needs of the economy with a focus on local leadership and providing inspiring careers advice for customers, including a new brokerage role to facilitate relationships between schools and employers.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>As part of the re-procurement process organisations were assessed on their capacity and capability to deliver the service through face to face services and a range of media that meet customers' specific needs and preferences. It is a matter for the new contractors how they achieve outcomes for customers including how they deploy their staff resource to deliver the service.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 01/07/2014 14:16:46 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

65126

	registered interest
	date	01/07/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Vocational Guidance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what contractual requirements to provide face-to-face advice will be in the contracts of providers of the National Careers Guidance; and what the current levels of provision are.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	203479
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>Twelve regional National Careers Service providers will be contractually obliged to deliver an area based service that will provide careers advice to adults through digital and social media platforms, on the telephone and face to face from 1 October 2014. The contractors must ensure that customers are aware of the ways they can access the service. Face to face careers advice is available for customers that request it, those who need intensive direct support or those who are unable to access digital and telephone services. <br> <br> The National Careers Service delivered the following during the 2013-14 financial year:</p><p> </p><p>664,948 new adult customers who accessed face to face advice;</p><p> </p><p>371,778 telephone advice sessions for adults;</p><p> </p><p>52,150 telephone advice sessions, webchat, emails and texts for young people;</p><p> </p><p>15,710,908 website visits.</p><p> </p><p>25,871 mobile web home page views</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 07/07/2014 15:42:03 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

65127

	registered interest
	date	01/07/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	National Careers Service
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many staff are currently employed in the National Careers Service; and how many staff he expects to be employed after the new contract for that service is in place.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	203480
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>As of 1 January 2014 the staff cohort for the National Careers Service was 3,740 people, these figures may vary during the course of the year. Future staff numbers will be decided by the prime contractors of the National Careers Service in line with their contractual responsibilities.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 07/07/2014 15:40:57 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

65128

	registered interest
	date	01/07/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	National Careers Service
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what quality criteria will be included in contracts for provision of the National Careers Service; and how performance against those criteria will be monitored.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	203481
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/07/2014 answer text <p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>National Careers Service Prime Contractors are required to comply with robust quality standards. All Prime Contractors must hold and retain the matrix Standard; they must comply with the Ofsted Common Inspection Framework for Further Education and Skills; they must participate in any research to assess, measure and improve the quality of the National Careers Service, and; they must produce an evidence-based self-assessment review each year. They will also need to provide evidence of their partnership activity and their role in brokering relationships between employers and schools and colleges.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 07/07/2014 15:43:08 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

91669

	registered interest
	date	12/09/2014
	answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept id	26
	answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
	hansard heading	Minimum Wage
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which sectors of the economy he estimates to have the lowest compliance with national minimum wage legislation.
	tabling member constituency	Stockton North
	tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
	uin	209186
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/10/2014 answer text <p>The main estimate of non-compliance used is from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE)[1]. The table below shows the proportion of jobs held by those aged 22 and over, paid below the full adult national minimum wage (NMW) (at the time of the ASHE survey) by sector. It is reproduced from the latest Low Pay Commission report[2].</p><p>This is a proxy measure for non-compliance as these figures include people who for legitimate reasons are paid less than the adult NMW for example because they are on the apprentice NMW rate or are living in accommodation provided by their employer. The ASHE survey is based on a sample of employee jobs drawn from HMRC’s Pay-As-You-Earn income tax records and consequently it does not include all workers who earn below the Lower Earnings Limit. These two factors tend to offset each other but we do not know definitively how large the combined effect is. However, we believe that it is small.</p><p> </p><p>Proportion of jobs held by those aged 22 and over, paid below the national minimum wage by sector, UK, 2012-13</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Sectors</p></td><td><p>Paid below 2013 April NMW rate (£6.19)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Hairdressing</p></td><td><p>3.5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Childcare</p></td><td><p>2.8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Hospitality</p></td><td><p>2.5</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Cleaning</p></td><td><p>2.4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Leisure, travel &amp; sport</p></td><td><p>1.4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Retail</p></td><td><p>1.3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Transport</p></td><td><p>1.3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Agriculture</p></td><td><p>1.2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Storage</p></td><td><p>0.9</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Social care</p></td><td><p>0.8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Textiles &amp; clothing</p></td><td><p>0.8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Office work</p></td><td><p>0.8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Employment agencies</p></td><td><p>0.7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Food processing</p></td><td><p>0.6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Non-food Processing</p></td><td><p>0.4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Whole economy</strong></p></td><td><p>0.8</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>[1] ASHE is a survey of employees completed by employers which we can use to look at workers earning at or below the NMW rate.</p><p>[2]<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288841/The_National_Minimum_Wage_LPC_Report_2014.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288841/The_National_Minimum_Wage_LPC_Report_2014.pdf</a></p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 13/10/2014 12:16:52 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
	tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham