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Minimum Wage
7. Mr. Desmond Swayne (New Forest, West): If he will make a statement about the abatement in respect of the minimum wage payable where an employer provides full board. [86497]
The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Mr. Ian McCartney): Following the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission, there is no offset allowed for the provision of board when calculating whether the national minimum wage has been paid. There is a limited offset of up to £19.95 a week allowed against the national minimum wage to recognise the benefit of the provision of accommodation.
Mr. Swayne: Is the Minister of State aware of the thousands of seasonal jobs that are provided for young people and students by activity holidays, and of the disaster now faced by the industry? In his tour of the country, when he will reconnect with his core supporters, will he check whether he can find accommodation at £20 quid a week anywhere in the country?
Mr. McCartney: I would be delighted to travel around the country and to talk to the 2 million people who have
already benefited from the national minimum wage. The hon. Gentleman's "let them eat cake" attitude is out of date. If someone has to remain on his employer's premises to the benefit of that employer, that person should receive a minimum wage as well as accommodation and food. That is why the recommendation is set out as it is.
Since the hospitality industry implemented the national minimum wage, more than 100,000 new jobs have been created, most of them full time. The national minimum wage is a job creator, not a job loser.
Mr. Jim Murphy (Eastwood):
My right hon. Friend will be aware that the introduction of the national minimum wage faced two great challenges: one political and one in implementation. The political one was made by the Conservatives, who said that it would destroy jobs and create inflation. The second referred to employers paying the fair wage. My right hon. Friend may choose to comment on the spectacular failure of the Opposition's scare stories, but I ask him to say what efforts are being made to ensure that the fair wage is being paid and properly enforced.
Mr. McCartney:
I thank my hon. Friend for his comments, and assure him that we have the world's most professional and organised system of minimum wage enforcement. Before 1 April, nine out of 10 employers indicated their total support for the minimum wage, and 40 per cent. of them were already paying it. Since then, I have had to have detailed discussions with 1,200 employers about non-implementation of the minimum wage, and half of them immediately implemented it and apologised for their failure in not doing so before. About 300 of the remaining 600 employers are still being investigated. Only this week, however, a media company had to repay £750,000 to its employees in wages backdated to 1 April.
To anyone not receiving the minimum wage, I say: "Phone up anonymously, we'll get the minimum wage for you--that's what it's there for." I also pay tribute to those employers who telephone us daily to tell us about other employers who are not paying the minimum wage. Employers are joining low-paid workers in ensuring that the minimum wage is paid.
Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove):
Why does the Minister have such a blinkered and belligerent approach to the specific question on abatement of the minimum wage when full board is provided? I have a constituent who runs an activity holiday company, and he tells me that, because of the Government's approach, he can no longer offer a job to the young people and students who usually man his United Kingdom sites, but that he is able to continue employing young people and students abroad, where the minimum wage is implemented more flexibly and realistically.
Mr. McCartney:
The hon. Lady should know that her constituent's employees, if they are 16 or 17-year-olds, do not qualify for the minimum wage, although people who are not in training will qualify for it. The sector that she mentioned is not losing jobs, but has a shortage of potential employees--because some of the employers are absolutely miserly and want people to work for them for nothing. That is no longer possible, however, because the
8. Dr. Doug Naysmith (Bristol, North-West):
What assessment he has made of the scientific and industrial advances that have resulted from Britain's participation in the European Space Agency. [86498]
The Minister for Energy and Industry (Mr. John Battle):
The United Kingdom has a world-class scientific community in several major spheres of space research, not least Earth observation. Our scientists have played an important part in the European Space Agency's Soho satellite, which has extended our knowledge of the sun's energy dynamics. Last week, my noble Friend the Minister for Science announced that ESA had selected a United Kingdom proposal to study the thickness of Earth's ice sheets as the very first mission in its new earth science research programme, living planet.
Dr. Naysmith:
I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. I am sure that he will agree that last week's announcement demonstrates the importance of working with our partners in Europe in the European Space Agency, and the benefit of positive leadership in Europe. However, he and other Trade and Industry Ministers will be aware that I have made representations, and even led a delegation to the Department, about closure of the site at Filton. Will he confirm the assurances that we have been given that, when the transfer is made to Portsmouth and Stevenage, every attempt will be made to ensure that none of the workers or expertise available at Matra Marconi Space will be lost, particularly in space vehicle construction and Earth observation? There have also been many assurances that every attempt will be made to find employment for those who choose to stay in the Bristol area. Will he ensure that those attempts are made?
Mr. Battle:
My hon. Friend champions the industry in the House, and knows well that ESA membership provides a very wide range of opportunity for both British industry and our scientific and technological community to develop our expertise in Earth observation, which is crucial in the practical work of tackling the challenges of environmental pollution, for example. Although, as he said, the work being done at Filton by Matra Marconi Space--which is a world leader in the design and manufacture of advanced communications satellites, and in every development in the Earth observation market--will be transferred to Stevenage and Portsmouth, the British National Space Centre has received assurances that Matra Marconi Space's expertise in Earth observation will be maintained. It is important to remember that the units are being relocated, not disbanded.
I appreciate that some employees may choose to remain in Bristol, or have no option but to remain there. I hope that there will be alternative employment for those who cannot move--Honda recently announced 125 new jobs--and we shall work to ensure that those employees have such opportunities. Meanwhile, our job is to ensure that we remain world leaders in that science and technology, and continue to make that contribution to Earth observation.
9. Mr. Robin Corbett (Birmingham, Erdington):
What financial and other assistance his Department makes available to assist the assessment and commercial evaluation of inventions by British nationals. [86499]
The Minister for Competition and Consumer Affairs (Dr. Kim Howells):
A large part of the Department of Trade and Industry's work is to create an environment in which good ideas can be converted into innovative products and services. We have worked closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to develop the national endowment for science, technology and the arts, known by its unglamorous acronym NESTA. One of its programmes is designed to promote invention and innovation.
Mr. Corbett:
I thank my hon. Friend for that reply and commend the fresh emphasis on encouraging inventors. Will he focus particularly on the local lone inventor, often working in his garden shed, who feels isolated? I am not making this up, because I have two examples in my constituency. Will my hon. Friend encourage chambers of commerce, industry and trade to offer initial mentoring services to such inventors, perhaps even before they have applied for patents, to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of inventions that are patented every year, on which people have spent a lot of time working, are given proper assessment? We do not want to let things out of the front door only to have to buy them later through the back door.
Dr. Howells:
My hon. Friend is right. Now that Business Links can deal with sole traders through its personal business advisers and innovation and technology counsellors, we have an opportunity to take up some of my hon. Friend's proposals. The NESTA programme will capture those people, and not before time.
Dr. Vincent Cable (Twickenham):
I am a little disappointed that the Minister made no reference in his reply to the Government's backing for the idea of an academy of inventors--which has been proposed for the purpose that he has mentioned--led by my constituent Trevor Baylis, the inventor of the clockwork radio. Is the Department investigating the role of invention promoters, which are mainly American companies that are here to take cheaply--in effect, to steal--the ideas of British inventors? Some of them are under investigation in the United States for possible criminal charges.
Dr. Howells:
Mr. Baylis, the hon. Gentleman's constituent, has met my hon. Friend the Minister for Energy and Industry several times. His proposals are being encompassed in the NESTA arrangements. The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about American companies making incursions into this country looking for innovations. The problem is not just Government quangos. It has to do with private enterprise, banks and the way in which venture capital works in this country. We are not entrepreneurial or innovative enough and our financial back-up arrangements are not designed to promote start-ups as they should be.
Mr. Alan W. Williams (East Carmarthen and Dinefwr):
My question has been partly answered,
Dr. Howells:
My hon. Friend the Minister for Energy and Industry is meeting the organisation of inventors as well as Mr. Trevor Baylis to try to bring some cohesion and co-ordination to the issue. I am keen that we should begin to advertise the recent price reductions of the Patent Office in Newport. We have reduced costs for inventors and new patents by more than 18 per cent. We now have one of the most robust and least expensive patent systems anywhere in the world, and that is a great boon for British science and invention. I will ensure that the progress that has been made continues.
Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton):
The question asks about assessment and commercial evaluation. The Minister will know that when all the other questions have been asked in the evaluation of a product the last test is whether that product can be brought to market profitably. In the light of the comments in the press today about the Competition Commission, will the Minister assist me--as a new member of the Conservative Front-Bench team--and outline the Government's attitude to profitability in certain sectors? If today's reports are correct, and we are to have companies dissected in open session, will the Government eventually determine what is an acceptable profit level within business sectors? Nothing will kill innovation quicker than such a policy.
Dr. Howells:
I heard the news about the Competition Commission's proposals and I asked what they would mean. They will not mean that companies have to give up commercial information, but they will affect transparency of prices--something in which I am very interested. I would like to know why certain branded goods are sold in this country at much higher prices than those at which they are sold in comparable markets in America or the European Union. British consumers have a right to know how much the mark-up is and how much more they are paying than if they bought those products in France, Germany or America. The best companies will be glad to tell consumers why that is.
Mrs. Browning:
Depending on whether the questions are asked in open session--I do not challenge whether the questions should be asked--the consequence of the proposals must be that eventually the Government will make some public announcement about what they deem to be an acceptable profit level in an industry or sector and what they deem to be excessive. Suppose that someone has made a real breakthrough in innovation. That has happened throughout our history and it is how big moves forward happen in the introduction of products to the market: some new technology suddenly allows a new company, sometimes a very small one, to make a product that allows it to make what might be termed a big profit. Will we have benchmarks for profits? That would stifle innovation and would mean that people would go abroad
Dr. Howells:
There is no intention to set benchmarks for prices. I recognise the need for companies to have flexibility and targets which cannot be judged by civil servants in Whitehall, still less by politicians in this Chamber. The Competition Commission's proposals, as I understand them, will relate only--in the first instance--to its inquiry into car prices. That is a sufficiently big and controversial subject to allow such tactics to be used if the commission is to arrive at something like the truth. It will want to know about a wide range of variables in that pricing equation. The open sessions will not be mandatory and companies will not have to give up confidential, commercially sensitive information, but they will have an opportunity to put the record straight publicly. That cannot be bad for anyone.
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