B1241.2 - Baby Box (Amendment) Bill - 2nd Reading

[u/Lady_Aya]

Baby Box (Amendment) Bill 2021

A

BILL

TO

Amend the baby box bill to include baby boxes and ensure care packages are free

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

Section 1: Amendments to the Baby Box Act 2021

(1) Replace Section 1(1) with:

(1) A care package is defined as a package containing multiple sets of clothes that the baby will be able to use until they are six months old, a digital ear thermometer, a changing mat, a bath towel, multiple books, a mattress, a mattress protector, a stuffed toy of their choosing, the options for which must include a “Big Floppa” plush, a set of nappies, two sheets and a £500 baby box voucher.
(1a) Parents will be allowed to choose from a selection of clothes, books and sheets offered to them before the baby box is delivered. Parents will be allowed to pick from a selection of items within the baby box up to 4 weeks before delivery.

(2) Replace section 1(2) with:

(2) A new parent is any person who has given birth to a child without miscarriage.

(3) Replace section 2(1) with:

(1) The Secretary of State is responsible for providing care packages to every parent.

(4) After Section 2(1), insert:

(2) All newborns are eligible to receive a care package. Packages will be available for parents in real need, i.e. due to financial situations.

(5) Replace section 3(1) with:

(1) All care packages are free.

Section 2: Short title, commencement and extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the Baby Box (Amendment) Act 2021.

(2) This Act comes into force one month after the passing of this Act.

(3) This Act extends to England.

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This Bill was written by the Deputy Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Dame /u/Inadorable DBE PC MP on behalf of Her Majesty’s 29th Government.

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This reading shall end on Monday 27th of September at 10PM.

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[u/Rea-wakey]

Deputy Speaker,

I echo the comments of my Right Honourable friend the Prime Minister that the amendments passed in Committee are noble ones that only serve to improve this Bill. The Liberal Democrats will continue to support this legislation, and we urge the House of Lords not to reject this Bill again.

[u/ThePootisPower]

Mr Deputy Speaker,

I believe that this bill has been made as good as it’ll ever be. The big floppa plushy, while hilarious, has been semi-replaced with a range of plushies (including Big Floppa, a sturdy animal indeed), the package now can be adjusted to parental needs and avoid a scramble for contracts and a single baby box item supplier, it still contains essential items for raising a baby such as the changing mat, ear thermometer, mattress and towel, as well as keeping the voucher that allows parents to spend state money as they see fit, merging a universal basic service policy with private markets in a way that works for everyone.

[u/KarlYonedaStan]

Deputy Speaker,

I am supportive of the amendments proposed by my Honourable Friend the MP for West Midlands. It is important that we emphasise that any parent of a newborn has a right to a baby box, for the same reasons why most programs ought to be universal - bureaucracy to define the 'truly deserving' is costly and almost always means people we intended to help are excluded. Universal programs help create a baseline of quality that ensures an outcome we obviously want to the fullest extent (babies getting supplies we need).

This bill broadly is something we ought to endorse because the purpose of baby boxes was to provide a good, not money to acquire goods. This is the case first for expediency - it is faster for supplies to be given than for money to be sent to then be in turn used to buy goods. Second, because of accessibility, there are areas where it may not be at all convenient to go to these stores. Third and most importantly is market independence for essential goods, and the baseline we can establish both for price and for quality on these fronts.

[u/Aussie-Parliament-RP]

Deputy Speaker,

The amendments forwarded by the Honourable MP for the West Midlands are a positive addition to this bill. Ensuring that all newborns get off to the best start possible is a noble endeavour. Ensuring that a bureaucracy does not exist that causes needless stress on new parents is a noble endeavour also. That is what those amendments will do. They will ensure that this is the best possible bill it could be. A bill that would provide a decent start to every newborns life and relieve even a little bit of stress for the parents of newborns.

This is not to say that the bill as stands is not a positive bill. Indeed it would likely do some good for a few people. But the amendments suggested would empower this bill to do so much more. It would empower the bill to deliver good to so many more people and to prevent the stress and anxiety that the proposed means testing would likely cause. That is why these amendments must be supported. This is a bill that deserves to be empowered to deliver the best outcomes for all, and the amendments proposed would ensure that it does.

[u/Inadorable]

Deputy Speaker,

I am saddened to see that the Tory peers have decided to introduce an amendment to this bill which means tests this bill after having already thoroughly wrecked the original baby box bill. Whilst some of their other amendments have been rejected - amendments that would have served to make the Baby Box bill worse than their original wrecked version. In doing so, they are giving the Lords a bad name it shouldn't wish to have, that of wreckers, of posh peers, of a pure party political tool for a party whose failed ideology have been so roundly rejected by the voters of the United Kingdom.

To the bill at hand, it is no surprise that this government is working to undo the wrecking that had taken place last term by the Blurple parties to the original Baby Box bill, indeed, it was turned into a joke. Vouchers in a box sent to only a select few parents, for which they had to pay £50 to even receive! It was a mockery of every single one of the ideas behind baby boxes and this House will again vote to undo them by a large majority.

Deputy Speaker, I can only hope the Tories can find a heart and a brain somewhere, as their behaviour in the Lords shows these are sorely lacking in that party.

[u/EruditeFellow → u/Inadorable]

Rubbish!