Three new statutes giving additional rights to parents and carers received royal assent last week. All were the product of private members’ bills. In other words, they were brought forward by MPs who are not government ministers.
Under the new laws, parents and carers will benefit from the following new protections:
- Up to 12 weeks of paid neonatal care leave under the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act for employed parents whose newborn baby is admitted to neonatal care. This is in addition to other leave and pay entitlements such as maternity and paternity leave. Stuart C. McDonald MP, a Scottish National Party politician, introduced the bill to parliament.
- The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act will allow existing redundancy protections to pregnant women and new parents whilst on maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave to be extended so that they also cover pregnancy and a period of time after a new parent has returned to work. These new rights were introduced to parliament under a private member’s bill sponsored by Dan Jarvis MP, a Labour politician.
- The Carer’s Leave Act will create a new statutory unpaid leave entitlement of one week per year for employees caring for a dependant with a long-term care need. Wendy Chamberlain MP, a Liberal Democrat politician, introduced this bill.
Although the government backed all three new laws, it failed to bring forward any of the measures itself.
It has, however, been quick to point out the benefits that the new legislation will bring to workers, highlighting that “these new laws will help to increase workforce participation, protect vulnerable workers, and level the playing field by ensuring unscrupulous businesses don’t have a competitive advantage and delivering on our priority to grow the economy”.
In terms of when they will be implemented, it has simply said that it will lay down secondary legislation “in due course”.