National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2011

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his explanation of these regulations. The reason why I was eventually very much in favour of the minimum wage was not that given in the background papers to this. It was the fact that where we have quite a strong safety net in terms of the welfare state, it seemed to me that we were getting into a situation where companies were able to pay low wages and the state effectively subsidised the corporate sector in terms of its pay. Bringing in the minimum wage allowed stopped that, at least to a degree. When I looked at the uprating in these areas in relation to inflation, which clearly they are well under, they probably reflect wages in the economy fairly accurately, so perhaps that is fine. I was particularly interested in some of the background notes. I learnt that almost 1 per cent of apprentices are 61 to 70 years old. I thought that was quite an interesting statistic. In fact, only 70 per cent—seven out of 10— apprentices are in the 16 to 20 year-old age group, so we learn something from the notes. On the exemption of educational establishments, I welcome the fundamental regulation around what can be charged as rent. I know that in the south-west of the United Kingdom, where I come from, one of the main areas of abuse of the minimum wage regulations has been with migrant labour in the agricultural industry. I can see that educational establishments are a justified exemption, given that people have to be enrolled on a proper, bona fide course. I welcome these adjustments to the regulations. I would like to ask the Minister about one of the areas of abuse of minimum wage legislation that has been highlighted recently, which is interns. Are the Government considering that area of non-employment at the moment? What might happen in that area? However, in general, I welcome these amending regulations.