Clause 11 - Penalties: failure to comply
Employment Bill
6:45 pm
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Employment and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
Let me say at once that we do not expect the penalties to be imposed very often. However, as with statutory maternity pay and statutory sick pay, we need to have provisions available.
Amendment No. 182 talks about the penalties that will apply when someone has failed to produce the documentation that clause 8 requires them to keep. The requirement will not be onerous. It is reasonable that Inland Revenue officers should be able to view those records during routine visits and confirm that payments have been made and recovered correctly. Similarly, they will need to examine records and call for information where it is necessary to intervene in a dispute and decide whether statutory paternity or adoption pay should be paid. We need a sanction to back up the requirements to keep and make available such records. It is necessary to defend the right of employees to receive what they are entitled to and it helps to defend the Exchequer from those rare situations in which someone attempts to obtain something to which they are not entitled.