Clause 1 - Paternity leave
Employment Bill
9:30 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 125, in page 2, line 36, after 'pregnancy', insert
'(in which case reference in this section to the date of the child's birth shall mean the date of the stillbirth)'.
Amendment No. 125 seeks to clarify a simple issue. In referring to the birth of a child in computing the date on which paternity leave commences, the Bill also deals with stillbirth, and rightly provides that paternity leave is applicable in such cases, not in order that care be provided for the child, of course, but so that support can be given to the bereaved mother. However, it is not clear that the reference to the date of a child's birth embraces the date of a stillbirth. The amendment therefore seeks to clarify the matter by making it explicit that in the case of a stillbirth,
''the date of the child's birth shall mean the date of the stillbirth''.
In preparing the amendment, I looked at the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, particularly the section on entitlement to maternity pay, thinking that that might provide some guidance. Under that Act, which the Bill amends in substantial part, statutory maternity pay relates to notification of an expected date of confinement. In responding to the amendment, it would be helpful if the Minister could clarify the wider issue. Although I have read part XII of the 1992 Act, I am still unsure whether maternity pay for the full maternity period is not provided in the case of a stillbirth. The Act appears to make notification of an expected date of confinement the
determining factor, but, so far as I can see, it does not refer to the outcome of that confinement.
It would appear that, where someone expects their confinement to commence on a certain date, notifies their employer accordingly, but unfortunately suffers a miscarriage after the date of that notification, nothing in the Bill will prevent them from being entitled to a full period of statutory maternity pay. That point is wider than the amendment, but relevant because the Bill—in this clause, and elsewhere—deals with things that are contingent upon a child's birth.
Perhaps the Minister will say that regulations have been made under section 164(9)(a) of the 1992 Act, which deals with special circumstances in which statutory maternity pay will not apply, and, if he does, perhaps that regime should be translated into the Bill. However, I will listen to the Minister. No point of principle is at issue; it is just a matter of clarifying the intention behind the Bill and seeking the Minister's reassurance that it does what it should.