§ Chris RuaneTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people in Wales will have benefited from the national minimum wage since its introduction. [140374]
§ Mr. SutcliffeWe estimate that around 60,000 workers in Wales stood to benefit when the minimum wage was introduced in April 1999, and that 60,000–70,000 workers in Wales stood to benefit from the rate increases that took place in October 2003.
§ Chris RuaneTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people have benefited from the introduction of the national minimum wage in each parliamentary constituency since its introduction; and how many(a) recorded cases and (b) successful prosecutions there have been of employers who have failed to pay the minimum wage.[140389]
§ Mr. SutcliffeIt is not possible to estimate the total number of people who have benefited from the minimum wage since its introduction. This is because the actual beneficiaries are likely to change each year as people move into or from low paid jobs. It is also not possible to provide specific estimates of the number of people who have benefited from the minimum wage by parliamentary constituency. However we estimate that around 1.2 million people stood to benefit when the minimum wage was introduced in April 1999 and that 1–1.2 million people stood to benefit from the rate increases that took place last month.
Between April 1999 and October 2003 the Inland Revenue completed around 28,000 investigations and recovered around £14 million in minimum wage arrears on behalf of workers. The great majority of cases are successfully settled without the need for further enforcement action. To date there have been no criminal prosecutions of employers.