Equality Bill

I have to answer on the whole of a vast range of proposals, and I have done so with what dispatch I can. I am sorry if I have not pleased the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe). [Interruption.] No one asked for another day. Amendment 18 deals with the difference between the terms "as qualified as" and "equally qualified to". We are concerned that that is about positive action. The phrase "equally qualified to" may have unintended consequences. Let me say, in the interests of dispatch, that we will maintain the positions that we kept in Committee, but we hope that that distinction probably without a difference is not something that the Opposition will want to press to a vote. Amendments 125, on equal pay exceptions, and 126 were also tabled by the hon. Member for Shipley. He has done us all a great service by raising those issues and then withdrawing them very quickly. Amendment 24—last, sadly—deals with the ability of employers to use different national minimum wage rates for younger people. The Government want people to be paid a decent wage, but we rely on the independent Low Pay Commission, which makes clear the higher vulnerability of young people in the labour market to the economic cycle. They have high unemployment rates, and their employment rates are lower. In 2009, the commission's report stated:""Young people have continued to do less well in the labour market than older workers and are particularly vulnerable in an economic downturn. We therefore believe that lower National Minimum Wage rates for young people are still justified in order to protect employment and at the same time reflect the training element attached to younger workers."" I commend new clause 40 and the related new clauses. Question put and agreed to. New clause 40 accordingly read a Second time, and added to the Bill.