Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 8
6th Report - Equality at work: Paternity and shared parental leave
Published 10 Jun 2025
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Equality at work: paternity and shared parental leave All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Lack of provision for self-employed parents, particularly fathers and other parents, is a key flaw in the system. Given the substantial economic contribution of self-employed fathers, it is grossly unfair to exclude them. Lack of provision causes financial hardship and associated family difficulties, notably where a self-employed father “does the right thing” in taking time away from earning to care for his partner after a caesarean section or medical complications after birth. The Government must aim to rectify this by: a) considering options for providing statutory paid leave for all self-employed and non-employee working fathers as part of its review of the parental leave system; including, b) introducing a Paternity Allowance 57 equivalent to Maternity Allowance, which provides self-employed mothers with up to 39 weekly payments at the statutory rate; and c) rectifying unfairness in the existing Maternity Allowance rules, including in relation to permitted paid self-employed work beyond 10 “keeping in touch” days while in receipt of the allowance, as identified in our recent follow up Report on misogyny in music, to ensure unfairness is not replicated in provision for self-employed fathers. (Recommendation, Paragraph 67)
From: Women and Equalities Committee, 6th Report - Equality at work: Paternity and shared parental leave (HC 502), 10 June 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 19 September 2025 (deadline 11 August 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says the parental leave system "needs improvement" and points the Committee's recommendations to its parental leave and pay review, launched on 1 July 2025, rather than committing to specific changes now.
- On paternity pay and leave, the government says increases to the length of paid Paternity Leave should be "considered through the parental leave review" so it can look at the system as a whole.
- On day one paid paternity leave, the government says making statutory paternity or maternity pay a day one right would raise "significant practical and financial challenges". The Employment Rights Bill will make Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave day one rights, coming into force in April 2026.
- On self-employed parents, the government says there is no equivalent Paternity Allowance because "there are no equivalent health and safety requirements", but the review will consider whether support meets the needs of families who do not currently qualify for existing leave, such as the self-employed.
- The review is expected to run for 18 months and "will conclude with a set of findings and a roadmap, including next steps for taking any potential action". Shared Parental Leave, kinship carers, single parents and multiple births are in scope.