Minimum Wage: From 1/10/06 - 22 yrs. & older: £5.35/hr.
  18 to 21 yrs. inclusive £4.45
  16 & 17 yrs. £3.30
   From 1/10/07:   22 yrs. & older: £5.52.hr.
  18 to 21 yrs. iinclusive: £4.60
  16 & 17 yrs.: £3.40
   From 1/10/08: 22 yrs. & older: £5.73.hr.
  18 to 21 yrs. iinclusive: £4.77
  16 & 17 yrs.: £3.53

The £4.60 rate also applies to anyone 22 yrs. and older under certain circumstances involving training
Full details are at:

Also on 1/10/06 we have the new Work and Families Act. Among other things it increases women's right to paid maternity leave from 6 to 9 months, lays down new rules for paternity leave, and also covers such subjects as flexible working and annual leave.
The Act can be found here in PDF format:

New rules are also coming in on 1/10/06 on Age Discrimination, which will add to the requirement that outlaws discrimination on almost any grounds you can think of - race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability and so on. Full details can again be found on the dti website, at:

and specific information on the new rules on age discrimination at:

The rules on age are not, in fact, as demanding as some may fear. Retirement, for example, can still be set at 65 (although it is no longer permissable to require anyone to retire earlier), and an employer must only consider requests for working past this age. If there are good reasons you can decline. More significantly, however, selection procedures in both recruitment and promotion must now ignore age.

Good information for employers on most subjects can be found at the dti website here: ,

The Business Link site is also an excellent source of sound, no-nonsense information for employers covering virtually any subject in this area:

From 1/8/09 for trainee solicitors the SRA minimum salary level is £18,590 in central London and £16,650 elsewhere. Recomended salary levels are £19,040 and £16,940 respectively.
The relevant page on the SRA website is here

Practising Certificates for the year 2009/10 will rise to £1,180. The relevant page has not been updated as of 28/7/09 but no doubt will be. It is here: