Employment Bill [Lords]

I agree about the value of lay members to the tribunal process, but the hon. Gentleman will be aware that it is not unheard of for tribunal judges to sit alone in some limited jurisdiction cases. We are talking about the capacity not only for tribunal judges to sit alone, but for them to decide cases without a hearing, in limited circumstances that are set out in the clause to which I referred. The national minimum wage has been one of this Government's proudest achievements. It was opposed by many, including the Opposition, before it was established. I see that the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) is in his place, but his party did not turn up for the vote on Third Reading. Despite that, it has become an important and widely supported foundation of fair treatment in the labour market. Some 1 million workers continue to benefit from the assistance of the minimum wage. Last week, the House approved regulations increasing the hourly rate from £5.52 an hour to £5.73 from October of this year. Historically, low-paid groups have benefited more than most, including part-time workers and low-paid women. Since the introduction of the minimum wage, the lowest paid have seen their pay increase more quickly than the pay of many other workers. The vast majority of employers willingly comply with the legislation, but that is not always the case and there are exceptions. Most businesses want to obey the law and treat their staff fairly but there are those who are willing to break the law by denying their staff the minimum wage. That impacts on those workers who are underpaid, but also enables those dishonest employers who flout the law to undercut the vast majority of law-abiding businesses that comply. That is not only unfair, but uncompetitive, and through the measures in this Bill we are determined to take tougher action against it. We will crack down on the minority of rogue employers who fail to comply with the minimum wage. Between 2003 and 2006, we completed some 15,000 investigations and identified underpayments totalling £9.6 million. In the past year, the Government have helped to restore more than £3 million in arrears to more than 14,000 workers.