Employment Opportunities Bill

Part of Prayers – in the House of Commons at 9:35 am on 17 June 2011.

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Photo of Gareth Thomas Gareth Thomas Shadow Minister (Business, Innovation and Skills), Party Chair, Co-operative Party 9:35, 17 June 2011

I rise to enable the hon. Gentleman to find the figures from Christchurch, and gently to make the point that perhaps abolition of the future jobs fund, which I think he supported, might not have been such a good idea after all. May I draw his attention to clause 3(2), in which he talks about an

“entitlement to training from the employer in skills relevant to the employment”?

There is no sense in the clause of a quality threshold for that training. Is that not a further reason for the scepticism of those in the House and outside who worry that this part of the Bill would also undercut the minimum wage and allow, as my hon. Friend Mr Hamilton hinted at just now, rogue employers to undercut the quality jobs offered by the many, many good businesses in this country?