Parental Leave (EU Directive) Regulations 2013

Lord Popat Excerpts

Wednesday 6th February 2013 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Lord Popat]

That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Parental Leave (EU Directive) Regulations 2013

Relevant document:15th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments

[Lord Popat]

My Lords, these regulations give effect to the 2010 parental leave directive. It is a revised directive, which repeals the 1996 parental leave directive. As the UK has fully implemented the 1996 directive, the regulations under consideration today are confined to giving effect to the changes arising from the revised directive. Before I elaborate on the legislative effect of the Parental Leave (EU Directive) Regulations 2013, let me state the purpose of the revised directive. It is to lay down minimum requirements designed to help working parents balance their work and family commitments.

The 2013 parental leave regulations do three things. First, they increase the number of weeks of parental leave for all parents from the current 13 weeks to 18 weeks. This transposes the requirement in the revised directive that parental leave should be granted for a period of four months. They make no other changes to the amount of parental leave available. Parental leave will continue to be available per parent per child but an employee will be entitled to 18 weeks rather than 13 weeks. Similarly, there will be no change to the age limits of a child whose parents are entitled to take parental leave—that is, five years old or 18 years old for a disabled child. They make no changes to the arrangements governing the use of parental leave—namely, the 12-month continuous employment qualification, notice requirements and the limit on the amount of leave which can be taken in a 12-month period.

In November, the Government announced a package of changes to leave for parents following the modern workplaces consultation during the previous year. As part of this broad sweep of changes to maternity and adoption leave, and the creation of shared parental leave, we will make parental leave available to all parents of children up to the age of 18.

The Government intend that these changes will be introduced in 2015. However, we are required to increase the number of weeks from 13 to 18 now so as not to be in breach of our EU obligations. We have decided not to make other changes to the age limit at this time but will raise the age to 18 years as part of the broader sweep of changes in 2015. The reason for raising the age later is that we understand from the business community that having the change in age as part of the creation of shared parental leave and pay will be easier in terms of familiarisation costs.

Secondly, the revised parental leave directive requires that parents returning from parental leave must have the right to request flexible working. Many employees who are parents and carers already have this right, but employed agency workers are currently excluded from the right, and this is not permitted by the new directive. The effect of Regulation 2, therefore, is that employed agency workers will have the right to request flexible working on return from a period of parental leave.

Finally, the regulations introduce a review clause and a duty on the Secretary of State to review and report on the workings of the regulations which implement the directive, five years after the regulations come into effect and at least at five-year intervals thereafter. This is not required by the directive but this Government consider that a duty to review the effectiveness of, and ongoing need for, regulations is central to good government and good law.

As part of the review, we will seek views from business and family groups and look to the research on family leave conducted by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. We will place copies of this report in the Library. I commend these regulations to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara]

My Lords, I am pleased to welcome this proposal. It is exactly what the Government should be doing and seems to do what is required. As the Minister said, it has been welcomed by those who have been consulted in the round. However, there is one caveat. The Minister explained why certain measures had to be brought forward at this point because of an EU directive requirement, but the general thrust of the approach to parental leave and to regularising the broader position is based on doing them at the last rather than the first possible moment. I do not need a response on that but I would like to record that it is obviously a matter of some regret that some of the good things that we see in this change to the regulations are going to be delayed, to the disbenefit of those who will be affected by them.

Will the Minister rehearse the timing of the extension to the age of 18? I ask that because the matter was raised when these regulations were considered in another place; there was an exchange about this of which I am sure the Minister is aware. I quote the Minister on that occasion, who said in response to a question from a Labour Member:

“The hon. Gentleman posed a fair question about why we are not raising the age to 18 at the same time”,

as the rest of the regulations which were going through with this order. The Minister said that the reason was straightforward—although it may be to the benefit of the Committee if it listens hard, because it is not at all straightforward to me—and that,

“we understand from the business community that having all the changes on shared parental leave and on pay and leave for parents in one go is easier in terms of familiarisation costs. For this small, discrete change, there is an earlier European Union deadline, and we want to make sure that massive changes do not happen at various times”.

That seems clear, and I understand its logic. She continued:

“However, I give the hon. Gentleman the firm commitment that the Government’s policy is to raise to 18 the age at which the regulations apply”.—[Official Report, Commons, First Delegated Legislation Committee, 28/1/13; col. 7.]

Although she said that it was not going to happen at this point, the guarantee which the Minister wished to give was that the Government would move this forward. This has been repeated by the Minister again today.

Why have these things not been brought together? If the Government wanted to minimise the impact of familiarisation costs on business, it would seem more sensible to do all these, and apply them, at the same time, yet they chose not do to so. Perhaps the Minister could respond on that point.

[Lord Popat]

I thank noble Lords for their comments. I thank, as always, the noble Earl for his comments on children who are being adopted. Adoptive parents will be entitled to 18 weeks, as is everybody else, with leave to be taken within five years of the date of adoption; others would be from the date of birth. If somebody adopts a child of six years, the right will expire five years thereafter or when the child is 18, whichever is sooner.

The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, asked why we did not bring the 2015 date forward. Consultation was done on a range of time limits: five, eight, 12, 16 and 18 years were proposed. Around 30% of the respondents called for no change, whereas 31% called for the age limit to be increased to 18. There was not much support for eight, 12 or 16 years. We therefore made the age 18. In order to minimise the cost to business, this change will only be introduced alongside the other changes in the system for maternity, paternity and shared parental leave. The change will therefore not be made through these regulations. Primary legislation is required, and will be included in the Children and Families Bill. I trust that I have responded to the noble Lord’s questions.

Motion agreed.