§ Mr. FlightTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will publish the research his Department undertook before deciding on the level of the national minimum wage; [81805]
(2) what recent representations he has received from (a) trade unions, (b) industry and (c) other interested parties regarding the level of the national minimum wage. [81803]
§ Alan JohnsonI have been asked to reply.
When setting the level of the national minimum wage the Government take account of the recommendations of the independent Low Pay Commission. The commission has recently consulted widely as part of the process of preparing its fourth report on the minimum wage and industry, trade unions and other interested parties will have made representations to them, although we have received copies of these from only a 275W small number of respondents. The Government submitted their evidence to the commission earlier this month and a copy of this has been placed on my Department's website at www.dti.gov.uk. We expect the commission to present the fourth report to the Government in February 2003.