WEC seeks views on statutory paternity and shared parental leave

• Women and Equalities Committee
• New inquiry: Shared parental leave
• Give your views via the shared parental leave survey

MPs on the cross-party committee, chaired by Labour MP Sarah Owen, are seeking views on the schemes, via WEC’s inquiry page and through a survey, to help inform their work ahead of the Government’s proposed review of the parental leave system. The call for evidence forms part of WEC’s umbrella inquiry into Equality at work.

The Government has set out measures in the Employment Rights Bill to enhance family-friendly rights at work but has stopped short of fundamental changes to maternity, paternity, and shared parental leave and pay.

Instead, it has acknowledged that “the current parental leave system does not support working parents” and has committed to conduct a “full review” as the first stage of longer-term reform. Unequal division of childcaring responsibilities is a key driver of wider gender inequality and the gender pay gap.

Chair comment

Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) Chair Sarah Owen MP said: “It’s vital that new parents have a shared parental leave system that’s navigable and works for them and their families. 

“Through this call for evidence, WEC aims to identify the most effective ways of incentivising more equal sharing of childcare and wider domestic responsibilities between mothers and their partners and to positively influence the Government’s review.

“The Committee would like to hear people’s experiences and views to help inform its work. For example, on how inequalities in take up of shared parental leave, including by ethnicity, income, qualification level and occupational status, could be addressed.”

Call for evidence

The Committee invites written submissions via the inquiry website addressing one or more of the following terms of reference by Friday 31 January 2025:

• To what extent has the statutory shared parental leave scheme given parents (including different sex and same sex parents, adoptive parents, and parents through surrogacy) choice and flexibility in how they share parenting responsibilities in the first year?
• What have been the longer-term equality impacts of the scheme, for example on equal sharing of responsibilities for children as they grow up, and wider domestic responsibilities?
• What have been the labour market impacts of the scheme, particularly for women?
• Why has take up of statutory shared parental leave been low and what could be done to increase take up?
• How can inequalities in take up of shared parental leave, including by ethnicity, income, qualification level and occupational status, be addressed?
• Are there potentially more effective alternatives to the current "maternal transfer" model of shared parental leave?
• Which countries have most effectively incentivised equal parenting and wider gender equality through their approaches to parental leave? What would be the costs and benefits of replicating these approaches in the UK?

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committee
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