Employment Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his support of the national minimum wage. If I understood the gentle subtext of his point, he had an understandable nervousness, justifiable in my view, about extending data sharing from one place to another. As he rightly pointed out, however, the objective is worthy, and he should be reassured that the safeguards are appropriate. As the noble Lord will know, I am but a novice in this House, as the saying goes; but I do not believe that our jurisdiction extends yet to the United States of America, which is where I believe Joe the Plumber was last spotted. But the noble Lord is absolutely right to point out that the purpose of this legislation is to ensure greater compliance with the national minimum wage and to make the enforcement of compliance easier to achieve. I welcome his support. On Question, Motion agreed to. 3: Page 18, line 16, leave out from beginning to second ““on”” in line 17.