Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 21
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)
The Government has said the parental leave system is broken and promised to launch a “full review”. It is clear that the system has some fundamental failings, including low statutory pay across the board; inadequate leave periods for fathers and other parents; exclusion of many working parents and guardians; and design flaws and unnecessary complexity in the SPL scheme. We acknowledge that it is not feasible to solve all of these problems overnight. However, we expect the Government’s proposed review to lay the foundation for progress in each of these key areas over the course 60 of this Parliament and in the longer term. Working parents will be let down by a review that leads only to tinkering around the edges of the system. The Government should commit to meaningful reforms in the medium term, followed by an assessment of the impacts at the end of this Parliament, with a view to going further towards a more gender equal parental leave system. (Recommendation, Paragraph 120)
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.