Clause 34 - Enforcement officers for agricultural wages legislation
Employment Relations Bill
10:45 am
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers), Department of Trade and Industry; Bradford South, Labour)
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving me an opportunity to explain the nature of clause 34. He is right that there is an historical relationship that explains why DEFRA is involved in these provisions for agricultural workers.
Clause 34 amends the Agricultural Wages Act 1948 to give powers to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs—and the National Assembly for Wales—to appoint officers from other Departments to enforce the agricultural minimum wage. Section 13 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 allows the Secretary of State to appoint officers from other Departments to pursue national minimum wage cases. We appointed officers of the Inland Revenue to act as the enforcement body for the minimum wage. Although DEFRA is the long-standing expert in enforcing the agricultural minimum wage, as a matter of principle it seems sensible to give it the same flexibility as the DTI has under the 1998 Act.