A Goldington Road nursery and a Wyboston software firm are on the government's minimum wage naming list of 3 September, for £5,230.89 owed to 21 workers.

Two Bedford borough employers appear on the government’s latest list of firms that failed to pay the minimum wage. Between them they owed £5,230.89 to 21 workers. They are among 658 employers named across the UK on 3 September, in Round 24 of the National Minimum Wage naming scheme.

The two are named in the Round 24 naming spreadsheet published by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

Employer Trading postcode Arrears Workers Average each Arrears period
Aristo-Tots Private Nursery School Limited MK40 £3,642.53 11 £331.14 Feb 2019 to May 2022
Universally Speaking Limited MK44 £1,588.36 10 £158.84 Feb 2022 to Oct 2022

The government says the round as a whole returned about £4 million to workers, so naming follows repayment rather than replacing it. Both firms are recorded as active at Companies House.

What each firm is

Aristo-Tots Private Nursery School Limited (company 03980301) runs Aristotots Nursery School at 57 Goldington Road, Bedford. Ofsted’s register shows the company is also responsible for a second nursery at Soskin Drive, Stantonbury Fields, Milton Keynes, under provider reference RP903561. Its registered office is in Sale, Cheshire. Its arrears period is the longest of the two, more than three years, and its average per worker is the higher: £331.14.

Universally Speaking Limited (company 05431888) is registered at the Knowledge Centre, Wyboston Lakes, Wyboston, MK44 3BY, on the eastern edge of the borough. Companies House lists it under other software publishing; it was incorporated in 2005 as PartnerTrans UK Limited and renamed in 2008.

The caveat that matters

The government attaches a warning to the geography in this list, and it is worth repeating. The educational bulletin issued with the round states: “Geography information is based on the postcode from the employer’s trading address. In some cases, this may not be where the minimum wage underpayment occurred.”

That applies directly here. Aristo-Tots runs nurseries in two towns, so an underpayment recorded against its Bedford trading postcode may relate to staff at either site. The register does not break it down.

One more thing the list does not show. The arrears figure is what was owed to workers and has been repaid. It is not a fine. Penalties are issued separately and are not published per employer, so nobody reading this list can tell what any individual firm paid on top.

What went wrong across the round

The same bulletin sets out why employers fall short, and the reasons are mostly administrative rather than dramatic. Some employers were caught by more than one:

  • 257 employers (39%) made deductions or reductions that pushed pay below the minimum wage
  • 221 (34%) failed to pay for all working time
  • 104 (16%) did not apply the uprated rate after April
  • 103 applied the wrong rate to apprentices
  • 71 got the accommodation offset wrong

Deductions is the biggest single category, and the list of what counts is longer than most employers expect. The bulletin names uniforms, parking permits, training costs, savings schemes, till shortages, childcare costs, and salary sacrifice arrangements such as cycle to work and pension schemes.

Unpaid working time is broader too. It covers:

  • rounding clock-in times
  • trial shifts
  • mandatory training
  • unpaid travel time
  • work before and after a shift
  • time worked on a sleep-in shift

Nationally the round covers about £4 million repaid to more than 27,000 workers, with £7 million in penalties issued. This was the first naming round since the Fair Work Agency was established in April under the Employment Rights Act.

What it means for you

The current rates, in force since April 2026, are:

  • £12.71 an hour for workers aged 21 and over
  • £10.85 for 18 to 20 year olds
  • £8 for under 18s and for apprentices

If you think you have been underpaid, the government’s Check your pay service explains how to work it out and how to complain. Complaints go to HMRC, which enforces the minimum wage on behalf of the Fair Work Agency, and you can also get free advice from Acas.

The traps worth checking on your own payslip are the ones that dominate the list. Has anything been deducted for a uniform, equipment or parking that takes your hourly rate below the threshold? Are you paid for time spent opening up, closing down or travelling between sites? Did your pay go up when you had a birthday that moved you into a higher band, or when the rates rose on 1 April?

Employers can check their own position against the government’s guidance on calculating the minimum wage.

Pay pressure shows up elsewhere in the borough’s figures too. Our pages on Bedford council tax bands and Bedford house prices set out what households here are paying, and our Bedford news page carries the rest of the week’s business and council coverage.

Both firms named here have a right of reply and we will publish any response.

Sources