---

Employment Bill [HL]

I have also been searching through the 3,000 pages of the guide to employment law for that point, and I have not found it. However, in the union brief—I have checked it—I found that, during the course of the then Race Relations Bill, the Minister for Shipping stated that it would apply in territorial waters and possibly even beyond, especially on British ships. So a lacuna has been left in the anti-discrimination law as there is authority that sex discrimination will apply beyond territorial waters. I, too, hope that a clear document can be put in the Library by the Minister’s advisers settling the issue of the extent of the anti-discrimination law. Whatever the answer, it will be found that it is way beyond internal waters. It is, as I said, is a nightmare concocted by the DTI. The noble Lord, Lord Lester, raised the point that I have been searching to answer about the precise area of application of the discrimination laws. Whatever it is, it is certainly within the area to which this amendment would make the national minimum wage apply.