Clause 4 - Statutory adoption pay
Employment Bill
6:00 pm
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Employment and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
I would not have thought so. This is a statutory earnings limit debate. Where a person has two separate contracts of employment for the same employer, which happens, they can be aggregated for lower earnings limit purposes. Where a person has two contracts of employment, one with an employer and another with a subsidiary of the company, they can be aggregated. That is what the provisions relate to, so I see no inconsistency there.
I am reminded of a further point, which is one made by my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West, about whose intervention the hon. Member for Tatton made a rather ungracious comment. My hon. Friend's intervention was spot on, because the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge noticed a problem in a different part of the Bill. Sometimes that is uncomfortable for Ministers, but it is an important part of the role. However, while the hon. Gentleman is right, the advice that I have received from parliamentary counsel, which we will need to consider, is that this can be treated as a typographical amendment. I thought that I would make it clear that he was right and congratulate him on his vigilance.
I hope that, with those comments, the Committee will agree to allow the clause to stand part of the Bill.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 4, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.