Section 1: Payment of maternity allowance: Ministerial office
This section sets out that the Prime Minister can designate a holder of ministerial office as a ‘Minister on Leave’ for the purpose of paying them an allowance and the conditions which must be satisfied before a designation can take place.
	Subsection (1) provides the basis for a mother or expectant mother designated as a Minister on Leave to be paid an allowance under the Act.
	Subsection (2) specifies that, in order to be designated as a Minister on Leave, the mother or expectant mother must fulfil the conditions set out in subsection (3) and that that mother or expectant mother must have ceased to hold their previous ministerial office ("the first ministerial office") immediately before appointment to a designated ministerial office, as Minister on Leave.
	Subsection (2) further specifies that the mother or expectant mother so designated by the Prime Minister will remain a member of Her Majesty’s Government for the duration of their tenure as Minister on Leave, because they continue to hold ministerial office.
	Subsection (3) sets out the conditions which the mother or expectant mother in question must satisfy in order to be eligible for designation as a Minister on Leave by the Prime Minister, specified by reference to the anticipated, or actual, birth date of a child. These conditions are framed by reference to other legislative provisions on maternity leave, and provide that the Minister is eligible to be designated as Minister on Leave if:
they are pregnant and the due date is no more than 12 weeks away;
they have given birth within the last 4 weeks.
	Subsection (4) provides that a "child" for the purposes of subsection (3)(b) includes a still-born child within the meaning of section 41(1) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953.
	Subsection (5) defines "ministerial office" for the purposes of this Act as any of the ministerial offices specified in Parts 1 to 4 of Schedule 1 to the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975, as well as the office of Lord Chancellor, which is referred to elsewhere in that Act. This covers all Government ministers, including whips. It does not include Parliamentary Private Secretaries as they are not members of the Government.
	Subsection (6) sets out that a designation as Minister on Leave ends either automatically after a period of six months or earlier if the Minister on Leave ceases to hold the office, for example because they are appointed to a new ministerial role, resign or are dismissed. The maximum period for which an allowance may be paid to a Minister on maternity leave under this Act is therefore six months.