Childcare Bill

I want to begin by briefly considering the context in which the Bill is set. We all know as constituency MPs who deal regularly with parents that almost nothing is as important to them as the care of their children. In my experience, child care is as important to my constituents—whether they are parents or not—as the headline issues fought over at general elections such as hospitals, schools and crime. That is the wider context of the Bill. Once we acknowledge the phenomenal child care pressures on parents—whether they be single parents, couples living with a permanent partner or whatever—in the modern age in which many people work 24/7, two obvious points follow. If the House wonders why I should mention them, it is because obvious points are sometimes overlooked. The first is that the first providers of child care are, of course, parents—and that applies whether there is one parent in the household or two. I say that because according to clause 18(4), which deals with the ““Meaning of childcare””, child care"““does not include care provided for a child by . . . a parent or step-parent of the child . . . a person with parental responsibility for the child””" or"““a relative of the child””." That might at first seem strange, but I want at this point—perhaps curiously—to come to the Minister’s defence. She would say by way of response that the Bill does not want to load obligations—so to speak—meant for others on to parents, step-parents and so on. None the less, it is striking that we are dealing with a Bill that formally excludes parents from child care. The second perhaps obvious point was made by the hon. Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble), my former colleague on the Select Committee. She is still there—