Government Updates Policy on HMRC Enforcement for Breaches of NMW Law

27/07/2016


The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (which has replaced the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department of Energy and Climate Change) has updated its policy paper on HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) enforcement, prosecutions and naming employers who break National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation, to take into account recent developments in this area of the law. These include the introduction of the National Living Wage (NLW), which came into force on 1 April 2016 and is payable to workers aged 25 and over at a rate of £7.20 per hour.

The revised document also takes account of a package of measures to improve compliance with and strengthen the enforcement of the NMW, which includes increasing the financial penalty for non-compliance with NMW law from 100 per cent to 200 per cent of the arrears owed to workers by employers, with a maximum penalty of £20,000 per worker. This measure also came into effect on 1 April 2016.

The paper also explains how the Government operates the civil and criminal enforcement regime of the NMW and the NLW.

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