Work and Families Bill

I am pleased to say that we agree with many of the aims of this Bill and some of the proposals within it. However, I am bound to tell the Secretary of State that I am disappointed by the complete lack of joined-up government. I shall repeat a point that I made only a week ago in this House, when we debated the Childcare Bill and discussed how it could help parents to achieve a work-life balance: this Bill is also about helping parents to achieve a better work-life balance, so surely the two should have been put together in one Bill, which would have enabled us to examine and debate both sides of the issue. Instead, the Government have chosen to introduce this separate Bill, which has only 20 clauses. Given the Government’s insistence that the two Bills should be handled separately, it is surprising that they appear to have had such difficulty in deciding who should lead for them tonight—during the course of today, we have been told about three different ministerial line-ups, but I am pleased that the Secretary of State has led for the Government in tonight’s debate.