Clause 2 - Statutory paternity pay
Employment Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Employment and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
We shall consider that. Maternity leave is a different situation altogether. A woman who has left employment is entitled to continue receiving maternity pay, so there is a difference between that and paternity leave, for all sorts of reasons that I will not go into.
We have to be sure about the language. I commended the amendment because it would be wrong to say that it has a drafting fault. We need to be sure that we have dealt with the issue. If not, we will either table the hon. Gentleman's amendment, giving him the credit and royalties that he deserves, or a similar amendment that will clarify what we are saying. He has put his finger on a very genuine concern.