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Parental Bereavement Leave Regulations 2020

My Lords, this has been a useful and helpful debate on an uncontentious set of regulations stemming from a Bill which had to

be a Private Member’s Bill but did, it should be said, feature in the 2017 Conservative manifesto—which is why it may have got through with the speed it did. This is in no sense to denigrate it, but from listening to the debate, one might have imagined that it would have been a flagship measure in certain circumstances. It was not to be that way, but that does not take anything away from the fact that this is an important social measure which we welcome.

In a sense the narrative, as rehearsed by my noble friend Lord Knight, reflects the fact that the campaign raised by Lucy Herd has been successful in getting movement in this area. The order before us is about the consequences of that Bill, the consultation that took place and the decisions taken as a result. Despite the points already been made today, we can be pleased that the consultation went well. It seemed to cover exactly the points we were nervous about when saw the Bill through both Houses. The results, although they may not satisfy everybody, give enough of a base for introducing the arrangements that we can welcome them.

Having said that, the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Hendy, are valid. Indeed, I was going to make them myself. We need to settle the question of whether we are going to treat fairly and equitably those who work across the various boundaries described by the noble Lord. I hope that the employment law, when it comes forward, will cover the gig economy and benefits for those who are workers but not employees. There will be no question of the Government being able to rely on the EU regulations in force not permitting them to do this because we will be able to do that ourselves, will we not?

Having been welcoming and supportive of what has been said and noting the points made by noble Lords about issues that perhaps still need to be picked up, I want to mention three myself. First, I welcome the fact that that these regulations have a common commencement date. The Minister will have been advised that I have a thing about this. His predecessor managed a score of one set of SIs starting on a common commencement date and 13 SIs that did not. There was never an adequate answer for that. It just seemed to be the way it happened. I am delighted that the Minister is starting his regime with an appropriate commencement date of 6 April.

Secondly, I read both draft instruments looking for the point picked up in previous discussions in the Grand Committee today about uprating arrangements. I assume that it is automatic, but given the experience of those in the previous debate of there being no statutory requirement to uprate, can the Minister confirm that these payments, if successfully claimed, will be uprated annually? If he cannot confirm that today, perhaps he can write to me.

Thirdly, when the Minister introduced the debate, he estimated that there are 7,000 child deaths a year. However, the Explanatory Memorandum has a figure of 10,200 parents a year eligible for parental bereavement leave, with 9,300 of those eligible for the payment. Can he confirm what the figures actually are? We have just discussed whether we should include in the figures gig economy workers who are not employees, so I think the overall figure is probably bigger. However, as the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, said, it is still a

small number and therefore not one that carries political weight, but we should know what we are talking about. Again, if the figures are not available, I would be happy for the Minister to write to me.

We support these regulations. They have been interpreted with sensitive regard to what is required, with the evidence that came forward supporting what we said at Second Reading. They are therefore welcome.