QUEEN'S SPEECH: Six-month paternity leave 'nightmare'. Bosses attack plan to offer families flexibility as economy struggles

Ministers say proposals aim to make Britain more business friendly

Plans to reform workplace has dismayed some business leaders

New fathers could take up to six months of paid leave from work under controversial plans at the heart of the Queen’s Speech yesterday.



Ministers said proposals were chiefly designed to make Britain more business-friendly and boost the economy, with measures to rein in a £1billion-a-year employment tribunal bonanza, reform the banking sector and lift red tape on firms.



But legislation to revolutionise the workplace by introducing flexible parental leave by 2015 dismayed some business leaders, who said it would be a ‘nightmare’ to administer.

Power of paternity: New fathers could take up to six months of paid leave from work under controversial plans at the heart of the Queen's Speech yesterday

Queen Elizabeth announced yesterday that new fathers could take up to six months of paid leave from work under controversial plans

Critics said the Coalition’s programme, details of which were delivered by the Queen in little more than eight minutes, was not radical enough given the economic emergency facing Britain following the economy’s slump into a double-dip recession.

The Confederation of British Industry said the ‘jury was out’ on the Government’s flagship proposals to repeal unnecessary regulation on business and limit state inspections of firms.



Aspirational: David Cameron hopes the legislation will smash the traditional assumption that it is the mother who should take time off work to care for a new child

Other key measures included:



■ A new flat-rate state pension, to be worth £155 a week, to be introduced in the most far-reaching reform of the system for a century



■ Forcing banks to ring-fence risky investment activities from their retail arms

■ New powers for company shareholders to rein in fat cat pay



■ Rights for fathers to maintain ‘meaningful’ relationships with children after a separation and moves to speed up adoption



■ A new offence of drug driving and a National Crime Agency to tackle organised crime and border security

The plans threatened to be overshadowed, however, by a row over House of Lords reform, which was included in the programme but is fiercely opposed by many Conservative MPs.



The Prime Minister told the Daily Mail that he was determined the Government would not get ‘bogged down’ in the issue and suggested a referendum might be held if MPs determine one is necessary.

David Cameron sought to calm his Right-wing MPs – who agreed in a private meeting of the backbench 1922 committee last night that criticism of the party leadership had gone too far and should be tempered – by shelving plans on overseas aid and gay marriage.



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But proposals for flexible parental leave, championed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, were included, despite business warnings that it will be a bureaucratic disaster if mothers and fathers are able to take their leave in ‘chunks’ of a few weeks or months at a time.

The legislation is designed to smash the traditional assumption that it is the mother who should take time off work to care for a new child.

Ministers say the measures will offer more flexibility to modern families where women are as likely as men to be the main breadwinner, and allow fathers to spend more time with their children.

The Queen arrives by royal carriage at parliament for the State Opening of Parliament in London

Under existing rules, mothers are entitled to take 12 months maternity leave, of which nine months is paid. Fathers can take two weeks paid paternity leave.

A consultation launched by ministers last year proposed that mothers will automatically have five months paid maternity leave, along with six weeks paid paternity leave for their partners.



The couple will then be allowed to divide up a further seven months of parental leave between them. All but the last three months will be paid at the statutory minimum of £128.73.



This means that in cases where the mother chooses to go back to work after five months, the father could take up to eight-and-a-half months off – six months of which would be paid.



Alternatively, new parents could opt to take more than six months off at the same time – doubling the disruption in cases where a firm employs them both.



Employers will be forced to keep their jobs open and would not be able to refuse requests for the time off. The extra four weeks paternity leave would be given to men who would be urged to ‘use it or lose it’.

Business Secretary Vince Cable is expected to give the Government’s formal response to the consultation next month.

Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Miliband process to the House of Lords, London, to listen to the Queen's Speech

Change: Ministers say new measures will offer more flexibility to modern families where women are as likely as men to be the main breadwinner







