Previously on this blog, I have noted how the revamped BIS scheme for naming & shaming employers found to have breached the National Minimum Wage has struggled to get beyond second gear since it came into force 15 months ago, with only 55 (mostly small) firms being named to date.

Now – after months of side-stepping questions by MPs Caroline Lucas and Stephen Timms – BIS has finally conceded that, in June last year, it somehow managed to wrongly name & shame two long-dissolved firms. Among the 25 firms named & shamed by BIS on 8 June, Michael at Zoom Ltd (company registration no: 08311831) was wrongly named as Zoom Ltd (04906202, dissolved in April 2010), and Masterpart Distribution Ltd (04153440) was wrongly named as Master Distribution Ltd (06878211, dissolved in November 2010).

Unfortunately, because NMW-flouting firms are named & shamed only by means of a BIS press release, with no central on-line register of those named, there is no way for BIS to publicly correct these elementary errors, other than to include the two right names in the next press release – whenever that might be. Until then, the number of ‘NMW rogues’ actually named & shamed stands at 53.