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National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 (Amendment) Regulations 2008

Whenever these regulations come before your Lordships, I always welcome the change in tone of the Conservative Opposition from when we started these debates 10 years ago. They were then, of course, significantly against the introduction of the national minimum wage, which is now recognised on all sides of the House as an important part of our economic framework. We welcome the regulations, particularly—this is a point we made when the Bill was introduced all those years ago—as the Government seem to be sticking, by and large, to their undertaking at the time to comply with the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. The noble Baroness indicated that this is a recommendation of the Low Pay Commission. I do not wish to detain the Committee for long but perhaps I may touch on the point made by the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, with regard to the differential between workers over 21 and under 21. The noble Baroness will be aware that, right from the start, my party has had significant reservations about this. I am not going to come to the issue from the point made by the noble Lord about how the new Equality Bill will impact on it; rather I ask the noble Baroness, perhaps somewhat cheekily, whether she would care to comment on press rumours that the Government will be under pressure from the trade union movement to alter the differential.