Did you mean the minimum age?
Ross Greer: Not quite at this point. We need to ensure best value for money in our spending, and that is about setting stricter conditions on the money that goes from the public sector to the private and third sectors. When Ivan McKee was Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, he made a lot of progress on applying real living wage conditions to grants and contracts issued by the...
Peter Aldous: It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Cummins. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby) on securing the debate and thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting it. Tourism around the British coast remains a vital component part of the UK economy. That is perhaps overlooked at times, and it is right that we are holding this debate in...
Baroness D'Souza: My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Bird, on securing this debate, although I do not necessarily agree with all his views. I also take this opportunity to thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham—Bishop Paul, as we know him—for his significant contributions to the work of this House, particularly in the area of children. I also add how much we look forward to the...
Anas Sarwar: E very time that Labour has proposed a change to help working people, the warnings that have been made have not come true. In 1997, when Labour proposed a minimum wage and a windfall tax, it was warned that that would cost 2 million jobs. That did not happen. It improved the lives of working people across the country. Humza Yousaf used to support Labour’s windfall tax, but now he is siding...
Lord Offord of Garvel: That is a reasonable clarification. The clue is in the name “senior independent director”. The Department for Business and Trade was of the view that we should not be appointing an internal candidate to the role but that an external candidate should come in. That was the reason for the dispute. On the matter of trying to delay, save money and not budget for compensation, this is on the...
Lord Sikka: I am happy to respond to the Minister—this could get interesting. The £12,570 threshold —and, as I said, 17.8 million adults have less than that —is after taking account of the increases in minimum wage. Many people have zero-hours contracts, work part-time or are maybe on a pension. That is after taking account of all the increases that the Minister said have been handed out.
Lord Bird: To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the case for increasing the national minimum wage to £15 per hour for workers across all age groups.
Julie James: Yes, thank you, Mabon, for raising this really important issue. As I've said many, many times, if I absolutely could have raised the housing support grant, I would. We're actually still in some conversations internally to see whether anything can be done between draft and final budget, but, as you well know, we've had to prioritise a number of things. So, just to be really clear, we...
Lord Hendy: My Lords, we live in a globalised world of goods and services where capital seeks the cheapest raw material and the cheapest labour. If—and I hope it still is “if”—Port Talbot steelworks closes, 3,000 men and women in South Wales will lose their jobs. But the needs of Britain for the same consumption of steel will continue; it is simply that 3,000 workers somewhere else in the world,...
Caroline Lucas: The best way to make use of those skills is by making sure that we put resources behind those workers so that they can make the transition, which so many of them want to do, into renewables. Right now, those workers are actually having to pay to make that transition themselves. They have to pay for the training. [Interruption.] They do. I tabled an amendment to a previous piece of...
Jamie Hepburn: I am sure that if we were investing less in social security, Mr Rennie would be the first to welcome that fact. Mr Rennie has implicitly answered this question in making his point about a single market with regard to employment law, but I ask him to be explicit. This question also goes back to his point about low wages. Would he prefer that the Conservatives, rather than the Scottish...
Diane Forsythe: I thank the Finance Minister for addressing the House today. As we speak on the Budget Bill, it is important that a significant difference is noted and emphasised between this Budget Bill, which covers the approvals for the remaining six weeks of the 2023-24 financial year and the commencement of 2024-25, and the separate, important issue of the full debate and scrutiny of a complete 2024-25...
Bim Afolami: It is definitely above my pay grade to call elections. In relation to GDP per capita statistics, which are important—the point of them is to try to get a sense of what is happening to individuals or to individual households and families—I would say—[Interruption.] Let me—[Interruption.] I wish the shadow Chancellor would allow me to respond. Real household incomes, which are as good a...
Kate Nicholl: I congratulate the Minister on his new role and wish him well. Some of the most precious work in our economy is done by childcare practitioners. They are paid poverty wages, so it is really welcome to see that and flexibility highlighted in your vision. Given that recruitment and retention are massive problems and the potential cliff edge that the rise in the minimum wage, which is welcome,...
Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer on 1 February 2024 to Question 11651 on Minimum Wage, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the recommendations relating to minimum wage for early years and elder care in the University of Manchester report entitled Working Futures, published in October 2023.
Kevan Jones: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether paying a minimum wage equal to that recommended by the Living Wage Foundation is a stipulation in the tendering process for facilities management contracts at the Darlington Economic Campus.
Lord Freyberg: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce a code of conduct to ensure that the remuneration provided to artists engaged by UK National Museums and Galleries meets or exceeds the national minimum living wage.
John McNally: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to help support small employers with increases in the national minimum wage.