Parental Leave and Pay: Government review

In July 2019, the Government launched its consultation looking at the current arrangements for parental leave and pay with a view to achieving greater equality in parenting and at work.

Under the current legislation, eligible employees have the right to take paternity leave at the statutory rate of pay (up to £172.48 a week) in a one or two week block during the first eight weeks after a child is born or adopted. Special rules apply in cases where a child is born prematurely. 

At present fathers are currently required to notify their employer of their leave dates 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth. Some consider this is quite excessive given the maximum amount of leave fathers can take is two weeks. Although, employers will appreciate that by having notice requirements in place this allows them to be able to plan for their employee’s absence from work.

Some extra flexibility

The response to the consultation proposes that there will be some additional flexibility granted to employees who wish to take paternity leave. The changes can be summarised, as follows:

•  Eligible fathers will be able to take their paternity leave and pay in two separate blocks of one week of leave (two weeks in total) at any point during the first year (rather than just in the first eight weeks after birth or placements for adoption) 
• Eligible fathers-to-be will need to give their notice of entitlement 15 weeks before birth and give 28 days’ notice before the dates that they intend to take each period of leave (and pay, where they qualify)

The response also provided some key findings of an evaluation report of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme. This included statistics on the take up of paternity, shared parental leave, maternity and unpaid parental leave entitlements. 

Despite realising that the uptake on Shared Parental leave was low because of the complexities of using and implementing the scheme (which was a common explanation from various respondents to the consultation), the Government confirmed that it would not be proposing any changes to Shared Parental Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave at this time. You can read the full response here.

The Government’s response acknowledges that “these changes to parental leave are not the radical reforms that some respondents argued for”. 

Whilst some additional flexibility with leave and pay arrangements are being introduced as a result, the response may be considered by some as a missed opportunity to address one of the key aims of the consultation when it was initially launched – tackling gender inequality at home and in wider society.

What next?

These changes have not yet been enacted and will be rolled out through secondary legislation which will be introduced in due course. As soon as we know more about the incoming changes we will provide further updates and advise our commercial clients to consider reviewing and, if necessary, updating their family-friendly policies to ensure that modern working and parenting practices are reflected appropriately.

Our experienced and expert team are here to provide bespoke advice and reassurance to individuals and businesses in light of incoming legislative changes. If you are an individual or an employer and you would like assistance, please do get in touch. You can contact Charlotte Holman directly on 01268 20244150 or charlotte.holman@birkettlong.co.uk