Ministerial maternity leave

A 1,480 word piece looking at the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill, fast-tracked legislation, the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General. The Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill is designed, in the words of the Prime Minister’s Written Statement, to remedy the wrong of having to choose between “taking leave to recover from childbirth and care for a new-born child or resigning from office” which is clearly “not acceptable in modern times”. The Paymaster-General, introducing the Bill in the House of Commons, while acknowledging it “is specific and limited in its aims” (col. 558), hailed it as ‘a landmark measure’ (col. 526) making “an important and long overdue change to the law, enabling Ministers for the first time to take paid maternity leave from their job for an extended period” (col. 558). While some change is necessary, neither statement in isolation, accurately represents the Bill which has been unnecessarily rushed through Parliament and leaves many matters for later determination.