Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to replace the living wage and national minimum wage with one minimum wage.

Through the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage (NMW) the Government protects the lowest paid within our society.

The Government sets differentiated and age-related minimum wage rates to protect younger workers who are more vulnerable to being unemployed than older workers.

These are set based on the independent and expert advice of the Low Pay Commission.

Since the NLW was introduced in April 2016, a full-time worker on the NLW will earn over £2,000 more than someone working the same hours on the 2015 NMW. In April this year, those aged 18-20 and 21-24 experienced the greatest rise in the NMW in a decade.