Work and Families Bill

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull, North (Ms Johnson), who clearly showed the House her expertise as a former employment rights lawyer, and I am sure that all hon. Members welcome her contribution. This is indeed a Bill of good intentions. For that reason, I support many of the intentions that were expressed so ably by the Secretary of State at the beginning of the debate. He was right to suggest that the concept of fairness should be at the heart of such legislation. That is why I say, with some disappointment, that there is a large group of families for whom fairness does not appear to be at the heart of the Bill. I refer to the 3 million or so families who run and own small businesses. All too often in such legislation, we tend to talk about families generally and we forget the peculiar circumstances of an owner-managed enterprise. I say that as both a grandson and a son of the owner of such an enterprise. It is therefore my intention in the short time that I have available to try to express the views of that group of families, rather than the others to which hon. Members have already referred. It is true to say that the Bill comes in a long line of similar legislation. We have had many employment and similar regulatory measures in the past few years. Indeed, since 1997, there has been a 53 per cent. increase in the regulatory burden on businesses, small and otherwise, and the net result is an additional 15 new regulations every working day. The cost to business, which the Government have accepted and is recognised among the leading experts in business, is now equated to £14 billion. That figure comes from the British Chambers of Commerce. Given the fact that 97 per cent. of all enterprises are small businesses, it is clear that the brunt of those costs fall on those firms. When we consider regulations, it is important to remember that these kinds of measures have a disproportionately large impact on the smallest firms. I highlight that in the context of the Bill by referring to an excellent survey by the Federation of Small Businesses on the amount of time that firms spend trying to comply with Government requests for information and regulations. Prior to the past six months or so, that figure had reached 28 hours for each firm every month. Each firm thus loses 336 hours a year. We normally discuss the productivity and competitiveness question, but we should also consider the time lost to the families of those who own and manage such enterprises. Families lose evenings, and fathers and mothers are sometimes unable to be part of a family Sunday. I used to run my own business, so I well recall the number of Sunday afternoons that I lost filling in the dreaded quarterly VAT return and a raft of other forms. I am worried that although we often—quite rightly—talk about the need to engage parents in bringing up their children, we forget that such legislation not only has a monetary cost for small businesses, but leads to people losing time in which they can participate in their children’s upbringing. The irony is that the small firms to which I am referring often have the flexibility for which the Bill tries to legislate. They are the ones that lead because their owners know their employees. I can think of at least three businesses in my constituency that are owned and managed by people going back through several generations and have employees going back through several generations. The owners know about their employees’ family situations, so they are able to work around them and to be flexible and engaging. I suspect that the response of the small businesses who read the Bill will be to say, ““Hang on a moment. We are already doing this. Please don’t restrain us by the dead hand of legislation.”” Of course there are enterprises that do not do such things, and they need to be examined and encouraged to change their habits. However, legislation is all too often a pair of handcuffs that does not enable change in the way in which I suspect that hon. Members would wish it to. Let me refer to several specific aspects of the Bill. We have debated the question of maternity leave, but I do not think that the scale of the change has been truly considered. We are talking about increasing maternity leave through two steps from six months to 12 months, which is a doubling of the amount and thus a significant change. The previous Bill, for which the Secretary of State was the Minister, increased the time period from 18 weeks to six months. That was manageable, but an increase from six months to 12 months is a different ball game altogether. The crossover to other legislation and the change in rights that that might well create have been referred to. I suspect that the Government did not take account of several matters when they considered the change. If a firm with two or three people loses a key worker for a year, it is tremendously disruptive. One must also take account of the cost of training the new individual, let alone the agency fees that are often incurred when employing that person. Of course, there will also be training costs involved when people return to work. I am not sure whether the Government have seriously considered the full costs involved. When the Minister winds up the debate, will he confirm whether the costs to which I have referred are specifically included in the regulatory impact assessment? I could not see that they were, but perhaps he has a sharper eye than me. I ask that question simply because if we are genuinely to understand the benefits and costs of the Bill, we must have the full information before us. Let me turn to what is loosely described as the transfer of parental leave. I appreciate that the provisions in the Bill do not reflect the Labour party’s original intention. The concept of mothers and fathers sharing parental leave is good in principle, but what about the practicalities? It is likely that a mum and dad will work for different employers, so we must ask how the measure will be implemented. The Federation of Small Businesses said:"““we fear that the plans will be highly complex and virtually impossible to enforce, with small employers facing an administrative nightmare as they try to comply.””" I have a question in my mind as the consultation proceeds. At the moment, it appears that the onus is on small businesses to manage the process, but why should that be the case? Small businesses are already asked to be unpaid tax collectors and unpaid benefit offices. Why should they now administer the Government’s social policies? There could be a dangerous precedent. I do not want to make wild forecasts—the Minister knows that I will not try to do so—but I would like to know whether the Government have really thought the measure through. Given the inherent complexity of the measure, would it not be fairer if the Government took some responsibility for their own policies and introduced direct payment of both statutory maternity and paternity pay from state to employee? I know that the Minister touched on the matter earlier in the debate, but I would welcome any clarity that he can bring to our deliberations.