Derek McDowell (Labour)

The primary intention of the amendment is to avoid the exploitation of young people and their being brought into an environment most of us would prefer they were not. The 1996 Act provides that young people should not work beyond 10 p.m. According to the code of practice which the Minister has kindly supplied me with, that has been extended to 11 p.m. in certain circumstances at weekends. However, I suspect that it is not adhered to as strictly as it might be and that many people who work in pubs do not finish at 10 p.m. Since many of them are in school, the difficulty is that if they are working from 7 p.m. until closing time, which in any event is illegal, it inevitably affects them the following morning.

The Minister may not have the information at the tip of his fingers, but I would be grateful if he could find out whether there have been any prosecutions in this regard. Some months ago there was a prosecution in regard to a fast food outlet, but I am not aware of any prosecutions of public houses. Is this legislation merely on paper, or is it enforced? If it were enforced, I would be happier to withdraw the amendment.