Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the (a) impact of not extending statutory maternity allowance to self-employed adopters on parents' ability to take time off work to bond with their newly adopted child and (b) subsequent impact that has on (i) parents and (ii) children.

Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) and Maternity Allowance (MA) are primarily health and safety provisions relating specifically to pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. They provide a measure of financial security to help women who have worked during or close to their pregnancies to stop working towards the end of their pregnancy and in the months after childbirth, in the interests of their own and their babies' health and wellbeing. As there is no associated period of pregnancy for adopters, it is not appropriate that they are able to make a claim for either SMP or MA regardless of their employment status.