Work and Families Bill

I think there is not a lot of difference between what we are talking about now and the right to ask for flexible leave for parents of children under six or carers of disabled children up to 18 or adults who have disabilities. There is obviously a disagreement between us on how many people take the ordinary paternity leave—but the figures the Minister is quoting include a combination of people taking a period of ordinary paternity leave and some statutory holiday leave and perhaps some other kind of entitlement as well. The levels of satisfaction that he quoted have a relationship to the rate of pay. People are going to be satisfied with two weeks if they are getting only £106 a week for it; they will not necessarily want to take a longer period if that is all that they are going to get. We should think about what the purpose of this leave is. When we realise that purpose, we should leave it to the couple to decide when the mother needs support. I accept what the Minister was saying: the purpose of the leave is to support the child and the mother. In the first couple of months the mother might have her own mother with her; but when mother-in-law goes home, that might be exactly the time when the father wants to take paternity leave. So to restrict it to eight weeks may not suit all couples. There is really very little difference to the employer if he takes his two weeks two months further down the track than if he takes it straightaway when the baby is born. On the notice period, I really fail to se the difference between ordinary paternity leave and a couple of weeks’ holiday. The father is away from work; if he gives a month’s notice that he is going to take two weeks to go to Majorca, it is just the same as if he took two weeks to stay at home and look after the baby. It would be far simpler for businesses to make exactly the same notice regulations apply to taking ordinary paternity leave, especially when it is only two weeks, and to taking that time off to go to Majorca on holiday. The Minister said that a man need give only 28 days’ notice if he wants to change the dates of his paternity leave. If the employer can manage with 28 days for a change in the dates, why cannot he manage with 28 days’ notice for the leave in the first place? That does not make any sense to me—I cannot understand what the difficulty is there. The Minister also mentioned that employers are quite free to accept a shorter period of notice than 15 weeks if they are minded so to do. The trouble is that some employers are not doing that and, because of that, some men are losing their right to have that time with their partner or wife and baby. It is a great pity, given that it is little enough entitlement, that people are losing out just because some employers are being bone-headed about it and insisting on 15 weeks’ notice—especially when, as I say, 15 weeks is a totally unreasonable period of notice to require.