Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Deferred
Review adequacy of legal protections against paternity discrimination and raise awareness of rights.
Recommendation
In implementing reforms that work towards a more gender equal parental leave system, the Government must consider the potential impacts on employment discrimination against fathers and other parents. The Government’s review must consider the adequacy of legal protections against paternity discrimination, including protection from redundancy for those taking paternity leave, and steps needed to raise fathers’ and co-parents’, and their employers’, awareness of legal rights in his area. (Recommendation, Paragraph 72) Reforming shared parental leave
Government Response Summary
The government's response broadly discusses how the parental leave and pay review will consider support for various working families facing challenges, including kinship carers, single parents, and those with multiple births, but does not specifically address the adequacy of legal protections against paternity discrimination or awareness of fathers' legal rights.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
We recognise that kinship carers provide a crucial role in society and need support, which is why the parental leave and pay review will consider whether support available meets the needs of working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers. Recommendations 14 and 15 In reforming the parental leave system, the Government must address inequality for single parent families. Unlike in many developed countries, single parents do not receive any portion of the paid leave that would be available to the household if they had a co-parent. Extending paternity leave entitlements risks exacerbating this inequality. We recommend the Government’s review consider options for single parents to reallocate some or all of the entitlements of co- parents to nominated family friends or relatives who can share caring responsibilities. It should draw on experiences in overseas systems, including Norway and Sweden. Our paid parental leave system provides comparatively very poorly for parents of multiple births, who face unique financial, practical and emotional impacts in caring for their babies and young children and juggling work commitments. The Government’s review must consider options to mitigate these impacts through additional financial support. It should draw on lessons from overseas systems, including in Sweden, France and Spain, which provide extra paid leave for multiple births. We thank the committee for highlighting that there are groups of parents who face challenges that are not currently reflected in, or supported by, the parental leave system. The parental leave and pay review will consider working families in these situations, including considering the international parental leave systems highlighted by the committee, to ensure the parental leave system best supports all types of working families. Furthermore, as highlighted previously, fairness and equality will be a cross-cutting consideration of the parental leave and pay review, including fairness between different types of parents.