Employment Bill [HL]

I did not wish to speak until I had heard what the Minister was going to say. How grateful we are that he is not in the Caribbean or somewhere, because some rather important amendments require his attention. This business of the minimum wage has become a kind of mantra—a tiny one, not of great importance—in the Bill. I wonder whether it should be there at all, particularly having listened to the speech about criminality. The Bill is not about putting people in prison, or keeping them out of it. I support my noble friend in opposing the clause.