Work and Families Bill

I thank the Minister for his comments, and the noble Baroness, Lady Morris. I think that we are all agreed that allowing a father time with his child when it is young provides an important opportunity to bond, which has effects years later—long after we have forgotten how cute the baby was when it was first born. But the reason why I have focused on the ordinary rather than the new additional paternity leave is because, at current rates of pay, very few people are going to take that additional paternity leave. More people are likely to take the statutory ordinary paternity leave near the beginning of when the child is born. The problem is that the system is so terribly inflexible: you can only take two weeks together or, if you take one week, you lose your second week. Really, what is the problem with taking the second week a little later on? I think that is unreasonably inflexible, but clearly we have a disagreement here. I think we should leave it to couples to decide how they want to take the leave. It might not be unreasonable to suggest linking this amendment with something we were talking about earlier: the father might want to take one day per week for a number of months, while the mother goes back to work for one day per week so she can keep close with her job and smooth her transition back to work.