My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have taken part in this short debate and to the Minister for her reply. To some extent, these issues were discussed in Committee and many of us suggested to the Minister that there were questions, which the Chamber of Shipping has clearly raised with other noble Lords, about the legality of this from an international shipping point of view. The Minister convinced us—well, she said there was no problem and she thought it would be all right and within scope. The only difference, therefore, is how many times a service goes into a port before it ceases to cause an international problem? I do not know the answer to that, but I cannot believe that, if it is all right to have 120 visits a year, it is somehow illegal to have 52.
The noble Baroness also raised the question of foreign-flag ships. I thought we had established that it applied to any ship, regardless of what flag, so I do not think the foreign flag comes into it at all.
I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Hendy for setting out in more detail what the RMT has sent us, but seafarers who are operating on a service where the cook gets paid £2 an hour might look askance at sea- farers who are getting the national minimum wage because they happen to be going on a short sea crossing where P&O had caused some problems earlier this year. It does not seem logical to me.
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Assuming therefore that the Government believe that the purpose of the Bill is legal under international law—I have to take that as read—it seems to me pretty unfair that some seafarers are going to benefit and some will not. I am sure that is not what was needed or wanted by the Government and I am sure that there will not be too many unintended consequences. It is quite possible to monitor which ships go into which ports and where, and I know the MCA and the Government can do it.
My real purpose in this amendment was to try to support seafarers who work around the UK and make sure that they are all subject to the same national minimum wage. We cannot have a few exceptions, just because a service happens not to go into a port quite so frequently.
Finally, on the question of increased costs if wages go up—we know that is why P&O did what it did, and no doubt others will try to follow—I do not think the evidence that increasing the minimum wage on certain ferries will suddenly put the UK out of business is credible. There are many other reasons—which I will not start debating now because other noble Lords will want to debate them as well—but the question of cost is something which P&O tried, and I expect won, and we do not want to see it again. It must apply to all ships which may come into the UK, as defined in the Bill, at least 52 times.
I am grateful to all noble Lords who have spoken, and I would like to withdraw Amendment 1.