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Minimum Wage

Answer

HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BEIS funds HMRC to deliver this activity.

For the year 2019-20, HMRC were given a budget allocation of £26.3 million. In the year 2020-21 this was increased to £26.4 million. The vast majority of the NMW funding allocation is invested in front line NMW compliance activity so that HMRC can provide adequate coverage across the UK. HMRC aim to keep their resourcing level at a minimum of 410 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. There are many factors that impact on their level of resourcing, including staff moves and pay settlements.

The total number of FTE staff employed by HMRC, working out of 12 regions across the country, to carry out NMW enforcement and compliance in the years 2019-20 and 2020-21 is provided in the table below.

Region	2019-2020	2020-2021
East Midlands	24.81	22.2
Greater London	40.07	41.2
North East	33.74	37.2
North West	106.06	100.5
Northern Ireland	25.23	26.2
Scotland	63.95	55.1
South East	12.34	11.2
South West	13.46	11.0
East of England	3.00	2.00
Wales	24.05	23.4
West Midlands	51.98	47.3
Yorkshire and Humberside	43.36	42.6
Total	442.05	419.9

The table shows where the staff were located but this does not necessarily mean these staff were working on cases linked to the locations given. HMRC deploy a national resource deployment model, to enable them to flexibly deploy their resource to deal with the highest risk area.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

105558

Session

2021-22

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Enforcement Minimum wage Staff Revenue and Customs

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk