Employers and workers get to have their say as the Matthew Taylor Review team launches its UK tour. The Review is to look at whether employment practices need to change in order to keep pace with modern business models.

Glasgow, Norwich, Cardiff, Belfast and Newcastle are among the cities being visited in order for the Team to collect evidence and build an understanding of how people work in different parts of the country.

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On 15 February BEIS named more than 350 businesses which had underpaid around 15,500 workers a total of almost £994,700. Employers in the hairdressing, hospitality and retail sectors were the most prolific offenders.

As well as recovering arrears for some of the UK’s lowest paid workers, HMRC issued penalties worth around £800,000.

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This comes ahead of the launch of the BEIS National Living and Minimum Wage campaign at the end of the February. The campaign focuses on ensuring employers and employees are aware that the rates will increase on 1 April 2017.

National Living and Minimum Wage campaign page

Applications are open for the UK’s first Small Business Commissioner – a high profile role supporting small businesses in payment disputes with their larger customers. Recent findings report that nearly half of the UK’s small-to-medium sized businesses experience late payment, with £26.3 billion owed to them in total.

The Commissioner, expected to be based in Birmingham, is one part of a package of measures designed to tackle this, and drive a real change in the UK’s payment culture.

The successful candidate will provide general advice and information, handle complaints about payment issues and direct small businesses to existing dispute resolution services.

Deadline - Monday 13 March

More information and to apply to become the UK’s first Small Business Commissioner

Ministers met businesses and workers to get their views on the priorities for the North West, and explain how a modern Industrial Strategy will benefit the region.

• Greg Clark hosted an evening reception with the North West’s leading businesses and organisations at Tate Liverpool
• Science Minister Jo Johnson visited Jodrell Bank Observatory in Macclesfield and Industry Minister Jesse Norman toured an aero company in Greater Manchester

The next series of Industrial Strategy events will be in the West Midlands region on 23 February.

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