Work and Families Bill

The hon. Member for North Norfolk also talked about full consultation on hours and whether four weeks’ paid holiday would be additional to eight bank holiday days. We shall consult carefully on that and on whether we should phase the introduction. My hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, North (Julie Morgan) made a good speech. She and the hon. Members for Angus (Mr. Weir) and for North Norfolk talked about extending the right to request. If we look at what is happening in British workplaces, we see that the fact that parents of children under six and disabled children under 18 have the right to request flexible working means that employers, in complying with those requests, are seeing the benefit of flexible working in general. As the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) pointed out, if employers were not doing that before, they are now saying, particularly in small businesses, that they ought to make flexible working available to all their staff because they see the benefits. We need to examine the matter further; we said in our election manifesto that we would do so. We should recognise that the whole culture in the workplace is shifting, and it will shift even further when the age discrimination legislation comes in later this year and people have the right to request to work after 65. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Mr. Khan), who reminded us how far we have come since 1997. I thank the hon. Members for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker), for Angus and for Wellingborough for their considered responses. This has been a tremendous scrutiny process. Finally, I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Bradford, South and for Sheffield, Heeley (Meg Munn). I am lucky indeed to have two such talented Ministers in my team. The praise that they have received from both sides of the House is testament to their skill. With that, I commend the Bill to the House. Question put and agreed to. Bill accordingly read the Third time, and passed.