Consultation outcome

Good Work Plan: Proposals to support families

From:: Department for Business and Trade and Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Published: 19 July 2019
Last updated: 5 February 2024 — See all updates

Read the full outcome

Parental leave and pay: government response

PDF, 286 KB, 20 pages

Paternity leave flexibility reform: impact assessment

PDF, 759 KB, 27 pages

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Detail of outcome

The government response to the consultation on Parental Leave and Pay explains the government’s intention to make changes to Paternity Leave and Pay legislation.

This legislation currently gives eligible employees the right to take Paternity Leave at the statutory rate of pay in a 1 or 2-week block during the first 8 weeks after a child is born or adopted.

The response states that the government will amend the current legislation to make it more flexible by taking forward the following measures:

allow fathers or partners to split their leave into 2 blocks of 1 week. Previously, only 1 block of 1 or 2 weeks could be taken
allow fathers or partners to take their leave and pay at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child, instead of only within the first 8 weeks
adjust the way fathers or partners give notice of leave and pay to their employer. The new measure will require an employee to give notice that they intend to take leave 15 weeks prior to the expected week of childbirth (EWC), and then 4 weeks’ notice of dates prior to each period of leave

The reforms give fathers or partners and employers greater flexibility as the 2 weeks can be taken at any point in the first year after birth or adoption.

Detail of feedback received from consultation on Parental Leave and Pay

The Good Work Plan, published in July 2019, included a chapter with questions for consultation on parental leave and pay. The aim was to:

explore the objectives of parental leave and pay
see how government policy supports parents and employers
identify the factors which enable parents to combine work and childcare and the impact of these factors
look at high level options for reforming parental leave and pay

There were 185 responses to this chapter of the consultation, of which 123 responded through the online form and 62 sent in responses by email. Most of the online responses were from individuals, while business representatives, trade unions and lobby groups were more likely to send in their responses separately.

Respondent type	Number of responses
Individuals	113
Large businesses	9
Small and micro businesses	2
Business representatives	8
Professional membership bodies	8
Parent representative organisations	6
Women’s representative organisations	8
Trade unions	9
Academics	7
Government	7
Other	8

The composition of the respondents is not necessarily representative of the views of the wider population, but it is useful to understand the main arguments put forward by each of the groups when considering next steps for parental leave and pay.

This consultation response has been informed by the Shared Parental Leave evaluation. which has also been published today.

Feedback received

Neonatal leave and pay: government response

PDF, 844 KB, 26 pages

Detail of feedback received

Neonatal leave and pay

In the light of responses to this section of the consultation, we will:

introduce leave for parents of babies in neonatal care
introduce statutory pay for parents of babies in neonatal care
legislate to implement the entitlement and the relevant commitments we are making in the forthcoming Employment Bill

This section received 1,364 responses:

individuals, 91% (1,238)
large, medium, small or micro employers, 3.5% (48)
business or trade representatives, 1.2% (16)
legal representatives, 0.4% (6)
trade or staff unions, 1% (14)
others such as charities and not for profit organisations, 3.1% (42)

The September 2021 consultation Making flexible working the default contains a response to this section.

This section received 3,638 responses:

individuals, 86% (3,146)
large, medium, small or micro employers, 8% (303)
trade or staff unions, 2% (80)
business or trade representatives, 0.7% (27)
legal representatives, 0.2% (6)

Original consultation

Consultation description

Parental leave and pay

This section sets out high level options for reforming existing entitlements which could help parents to balance the gender division of parental leave.

This part of the consultation closed on 29 November 2019.

Neonatal leave and pay

This section looks at proposals for a new leave and pay entitlement for parents of babies that require neonatal care after birth.

This part of the consultation closed on 11 October 2019.

This section looks at whether employers should have a duty to consider if a job can be done flexibly and make that clear when advertising a role. It also considers options for requiring large employers (those with 250 or more employees) to publish their family related leave and pay and flexible working policies.

This part of the consultation closed on 11 October 2019.

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