Work and Families Bill

My understanding is that the Treasury, not the Department of Trade and Industry, did the major work on the figures. That may colour both the figures and my hon. Friend’s view of them. Although we support measures that make parents more able to spend time with their children, we remain to be convinced that the Government can introduce a system for managing paternity pay that allows the necessary checks to prevent abuse but is not overly bureaucratic for employers to administer. On past form, we are doubtful that the Government will deliver. We also seek greater clarification of the proposals, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham and the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) referred, for introducing regulations to give the Government the power through secondary legislation to bring in new rules on leave entitlement. In his responses to interventions, the Secretary of State made it clear that the Government intended to introduce powers to ensure that the annual leave entitlement for employees did not include the UK’s eight bank holidays. If my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham is correct, the House authorities will have to pay some attention to that proposal. I am sure that most employers want to ensure that their staff have adequate paid holiday and will support the need to provide it for their employees, but that move will impose a substantial cost on some businesses and I doubt that many will relish the thought of giving the Government carte blanche to change the rules. Although the Secretary of State was specific about the intention of clause 13, the provision is vague and simply gives the Secretary of State the power to introduce secondary legislation that can affect the rules on leave entitlement. We will want to press the Government on that. If they have a specific intention, it should be in the Bill. Many employers might accept what the Government and the Secretary of State say about bank holidays as part of annual leave entitlement, but they would be worried about giving the Government a simple power to introduce—at some stage in the future—other regulations on leave entitlement.