§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what work his Department has carried out to identify how many of those workers earning below the minimum wage as recorded by the new earnings survey should have been in receipt of the minimum wage. [151768]
§ Mr. Alan Johnson[holding answer 1 March 2001]: An estimate of the number of workers being paid below the national minimum wage can be made from central estimates based on the Office for National Statistics' new earnings and labour force surveys. However, this in itself is not an indication of the extent of non-compliance. There are a number of factors which need to be taken into account. Exactly which jobs and workers have been included in the surveys, for example, the different components of pay received and the composition of hours of work, can all affect the estimates. There is also the issue of sampling variation in the survey results, which means that any estimates should properly be provided as a range. The surveys do not tell us how many people are receiving free accommodation, are Government trainees, or are working for their family business and thus exempt. Account needs to be taken of the level of economic activity in the informal economy, which may not be picked up by the central estimates. The Low Pay Commission is monitoring and evaluating the impact of the minimum wage and is due to report its findings by July. I look forward to receiving the commission's report. My Department is also working with the Inland Revenue, which enforces the national minimum wage and administers the Working Families Tax Credit, to obtain indications of the level of minimum wage non-compliance from those sources