Work and Families Bill

I thank the Minister for all his comments and apologise to him for not starting my remarks by welcoming the main thrust of the Bill and recognising the steps forward that the Bill will make—and, indeed, by recognising what the Government have committed themselves to in future, in the general thrust of the direction in which they are going. The Minister is quite right in saying that we all absolutely support that. I suppose that I was so keen to get into the meat of my amendments that I neglected to do that. But I thank him and all Members of the Committee who supported the amendment. I also thank the Mother’s Union, which I forgot to mention has briefed me on this matter. The point that the Mother’s Union, and all of us, are making, is that parents need to have a real choice to take the full entitlement of maternity leave. If the financial constraints are great, they do not really have a real choice. Families tend to live up to the income that they normally have; they take on a mortgage of a certain size and payments on their car and their furniture and so on. It is very difficult to ratchet those back for a period of six, nine or 12 months, when the mother wants to take time to bond with her child. That is why it is really desirable to have this amendment. As for the detail of the Minister’s remarks on the different kinds of benefits, I think that one should give parents a choice. I do not have any problem with a mother having an allowance during her maternity leave that is actually greater than what she normally earns, because of what we heard yesterday from the Women and Work Commission about the terrible low pay that so many women receive. So I do not think that is a bad thing at all—we should think of it as a subsidy for a new baby citizen coming into the world. I accept that the cost is not inconsiderable, and I was aware that it would amount to many millions of pounds—but we should think of the benefits. The Government have done a great deal to spend in order to save in the future, but they need to go further in that direction, because we all know how lack of bonding between parents and children and lack of a proper progress of child development during those first 12 months can actually lay the foundations for problems in later years, and the physical and mental health problems that can occur. We hear about so many mental problems that teenagers have these days, and not enough services to take account of them. There is also the cost if they get into the criminal justice system. So it really is worth spending to save when it comes to early intervention. It is a matter of priorities. Do we spend money on a war in Iraq or do we spend it on ensuring that our parents and children have the opportunity to make strong families and strong physical and mental development right from the start? I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 1 agreed to. Clause 2 agreed to.