Work and Families Bill

My Lords, I am very grateful to have just a few moments in which to ask a couple of questions and make a couple of points. It was reported with concern in at least one national newspaper at the weekend that, under the Bill, the husband or partner of a woman who has just given birth can have conferred on him the right to paid leave for any part of the nine months, or even 12 months, that the mother may choose not to take. This raised many questions in my mind. I read the Bill keenly right the way through—twice. People will not perhaps be altogether astonished that I could not discern what part of the Bill that came under and what the conditions were. That is not really surprising, because there is double Dutch, there is gobbledegook and there is parliamentary drafting. Sometimes it is very difficult to unravel what is actually meant. The Minister did not mention this matter in his speech, although my noble friend Lady Miller did. I have even more questions because of what she said and I ask the Minister to answer some of them when he replies. It seems that, because the man will almost certainly not be working for the same employer, it will be difficult for employers to know whether perhaps two or even three men are not making the same claim for the same paternity leave from different employers. I do not know who will check that. In days of yore, the man could be the husband of the woman and their name would be the same, so at least official records might know. Today, however, as like as not the parents will not be married and will have different names, so no records could discern that fraud was taking place. That worries me. Are there to be any checks as to whether the man—or men—claiming to look after the child is actually doing so? I wish I could believe that it was a beautiful world and no one would cheat, lie or try to get the best out of the social security system in our country, but I am sorry to say that evidence goes against that. I am very concerned on the part of the employer. As the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, has said, there could be great difficulties, particularly for an employer of only three or four people. I want to know whether employers will be reimbursed for what they pay. I could not find that. Is sufficient notice being taken of the difficulties it would cause to employers? Can we be certain that, as the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, said, all children will have their lives and health greatly improved because of this Bill? I wish that were true, and I hope it is, but I ha’e ma doots. I must say in passing that I cannot believe the noble Earl was ever described as an ape. I am sure he was just as charming then as he is now. In his speech, the noble Earl said that he felt it may put employers off employing women if this measure came in. As far as I can see, it would not make a darn bit of difference if you employed women. That is not the point; rather, it is employing the men who say they are going to take over from the women. It is fair to say that there are many unanswered questions in what I have no doubt is a very well intentioned Bill from the Government.