Clause 46 - Fixed-term work
Employment
4:45 pm
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 232, in page 49, line 5, leave out ''average'' and insert ''normal''.
The clause inserts substitute wording into the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992. Earlier parts of the Bill insert sections into the 1992 Act; new section 171ZL(2)(d), inserted by clause 4, refers to ''normal'' weekly earnings rather than ''average'' weekly earnings. I recall the Minister telling us when we debated that provision that it was necessary to have a definition in that form—''normal weekly earnings''—because average weekly earnings could inadvertently include abnormal payments such as annual bonuses. I was therefore a little surprised to see that in clause 46, the provision to be inserted into the 1992 Act includes the phrase ''average weekly earnings''. The amendment would delete ''average'' and insert ''normal'' to probe the Minister about the justification, if any, for including ''average'' in that instance, and about the way in which that meshes with his explanation of the need to use ''normal'' in clause 4.