Valerie chairs debate on the Draft National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2016

I have been a member of the Mr Speaker’s Panel of Chairs since June 2015. On Monday 11 January 2015, I chaired the Second Delegated Legislation Committee on the Draft national Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2016.This proposed legislation comes into force on April 4 2016.

This instrument:

– introduces the New National Living Wage as the new single hourly rate for adults aged 25 years or older;

-provides for the National Living Wage to be calculated by adding together the living wage premium and the main national minimum wage rate;

-amends the percentage figure which is used to calculate the financial  penalty imposed for underpayment of the national minimum wage.

In the statutory instrument the following rates were set out:
Workers who qualify for the national minimum wage at a different rate

4A. -(1) The hourly rate of the national minimum wage is-
(a) £6.70 for a worker who is aged 21 years or over (but is not yet aged 25 years);
(b) £5.30 for a worker who is aged 18 years or over (but is not yet aged 21 years);
(c) £3.87 for a worker who is aged under 18 years;
(d) £3.30 for a worker to whom the apprenticeships rate applies, as determined in accordance with regulation 5.

(2) If the rate in paragraph (1)(d) applies to a worker, the national living wage and the rates in paragraph (1)(a), (b) and (c) of this regulation do not apply to that worker.

Question put and agreed to.
Resolved, That the Committee has considered the draft Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2016