Work and Families Bill

Yes, and that is exactly the point that I am about to make. We are asking businesses to give extra flexibility to their employees. That means that we are asking them to make administrative arrangements for people to be away from their work duties. We support that; it is right. Families need that time; children, particularly new babies, need that time. I know personally that it is vital, as I seem to be running around in circles. This is my son’s first week at real school, and I am trying to take him there in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon, although I will not be there this afternoon. We are fortunate. We have great flexibility in our hours here—they are long hours but they are quite flexible. If we have that privilege, so should as many other employees in the country as possible. I am completely in favour of that. We are, however, asking an employer, first, to make arrangements to provide that flexibility, and secondly to administer a replacement employee, perhaps from an agency, to do the work that is not being done by the person on leave. We are asking the employer to pay money to the employee, and to go through a further administrative form-filling experience of claiming it back from the Government and then balancing the accounts. The hon. Member for North Norfolk made the cash-flow point very well. Instead of a very simple arrangement between employer and employee for the payment of wages, tax and national insurance, the situation becomes much more complicated, and it all takes time. As I said before, to an employer or small business man, time is money. The very effectiveness of the businesses that we are trying to encourage and support is threatened by what we are asking them to do in the Bill. In new clause 1, we recognise that we are asking businesses to take on extra burdens because that is right for the economy, society and families, good for employers and businesses, and good for employees, so the Government ought to help in the administration of that burden. The Government promised to be deregulatory—that is the biggest joke I have ever heard. The Chancellor makes speeches about deregulation; the Government count the regulations and say how many there should be. My understanding—the Minister will correct me if I am wrong—is that if a new regulation is introduced, some other regulation has to be abolished to keep the regulatory burden balanced. That is certainly not happening. The Chancellor likes to talk about these things, but in reality that is not what the Government are doing for the employers and employees in UK businesses.