Mr Colin Jack (Department for the Economy): Thank you, Chair. I will briefly set out the purpose and effect of the two sets of statutory parental bereavement pay regulations that are before the Committee. I have to start with an apology, I am afraid, for the short time that the Committee has had to consider the draft regulations before they come into effect.
We briefed the Committee on 28 January about the changes to parental bereavement leave and pay, which are due to come into effect from 6 April. The miscarriage regulations will be debated under the draft affirmative procedure on the Floor of the House next week. I mentioned at that previous appearance that we would bring forward an additional set of regulations, so that the day-1 right to parental bereavement leave and pay would also become operational. That has turned into two sets of regulations, and one of those needs to come into effect before the miscarriage regulations can. That is why we were keen to get the correspondence to the Committee before today's meeting.
The regulations have required additional legal scrutiny because they are unique to Northern Ireland and to the specific entitlement to parental bereavement leave and pay. It is the first time that a family-related paid leave entitlement has been made a day-1 right either here or in Britain, so we have had to have additional legal scrutiny. That scrutiny has helped to confirm and refine how the payment will operate for employees who work irregular or variable hours; employees who are in less secure forms of work; employees who are moving employers; and employees who are returning from voluntary service or armed forces reserve duty or have other such circumstances. The scrutiny has also provided additional assurance that the entitlement will operate fairly and as intended across a range of employment circumstances.
I come to the detail of the regulations. The first set, the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026, are a technical but essential part of securing the reforms. Their only purpose is to remove regulation 37 from the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) (No. 2) Regulations 2023. Regulation 37 is an expiry provision that was originally included to make it clear that the initial arrangements brought in under the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 were time-limited. They were interim arrangements that allowed parental bereavement leave and pay to operate here in the same way as it has done in Britain. Having an expiry clause made it clear that they were interim rules and were not intended to be permanent. We are now at the point at which the scheme that was intended by the Committee in 2022 is being put in place, so the expiry provision needs to be removed so that parental bereavement pay will continue to be available to all who will now be entitled to it.
The second set of regulations does the detailed work of making parental bereavement pay a day-1 right. The core aim is to ensure that statutory parental bereavement pay is accessible and fair to all parents who require it. First, the regulations remove service-based barriers to entitlement by removing the requirement for 26 weeks of continuous employment. As a result, employees will no longer be excluded simply because they are new to a job or have recently changed employer. Parental bereavement is painful and unpredictable, and removing the service requirement ensures that parental bereavement pay operates as a genuine day-1 right. Secondly, the regulations address the position of employees with limited, atypical or irregular earnings histories. They introduce an eight-week earnings test. Crucially, they allow entitlement to be determined by reference to "expected normal weekly earnings" and hence the associated National Insurance contributions where necessary. That ensures that employees are not excluded simply because they lack a full earnings record; have recently returned from absence; or work variable or irregular hours. Thirdly, the regulations make associated amendments to ensure coherence across the statutory scheme in how earnings calculations should be carried out. Finally, the regulations make technical amendments to ensure that employees who have worked or were expected to work in a European Economic Area state during the relevant earnings assessment period are treated as having been employed in Northern Ireland for social security purposes.
Taken together, the regulations will ensure that entitlement to statutory parental bereavement pay is not determined by length of service, technical earnings gaps or the structure of an individual's employment history. They support a scheme that is accessible, equitable and responsive to real-world working patterns. I emphasise that both sets of regulations are necessary to ensure continuity of the statutory parental bereavement pay scheme; to introduce entitlement in cases of miscarriage; and to give effect to a new technical approach to statutory payments to make them a day-1 right.
I am grateful for the Committee's understanding of the manner and timing of our bringing these additional regulations to you. We are happy to address any questions.
The Chairperson (Mr Brett): Thank you very much for that, Colin, Geraldine and Joseph. I thank my Committee colleagues for agreeing to edit today's agenda to make sure that we could get this important matter through. There are no questions from colleagues.
Is the Committee content for the Department to make the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026?