UK government responds to calls for better parental leave policies

A few months ago we explained that the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) had published a report which said that the parental leave system needed significant reform. The government has now published its official response. 

Review underway, but no immediate changes to pay

The government has said that it is reviewing parental leave and pay and other family-related payments including statutory maternity and paternity pay. This review, launched in July 2025, is expected to last 18 months, and will explore how to improve women’s career outcomes and reduce the gender pay gap and the so-called “motherhood penalty.”

However, the government declined to introduce a day-one right to paid paternity leave. It cited practical and financial challenges, such as the lack of earnings data for newly hired employees and the administrative burden on employers, particularly small businesses. 

Day-one rights for unpaid leave already planned

The government will introduce day-one rights for unpaid paternity and parental leave through the upcoming Employment Rights Bill (ERB). This change is expected to benefit 32,000 fathers or partners and 1.5 million parents who currently miss out due to service requirements.

The ERB will also remove restrictions that prevent fathers from taking paternity leave after shared parental leave (SPL), offering greater flexibility for families.

The government will assess whether current legal protections for fathers taking paternity leave are adequate. It also plans to revisit the SPL system, which suffers from low uptake, and will consider simplifying eligibility and increasing flexibility.

Future developments: working families included the self-employed

The government acknowledged that more support is needed for working families and pledged to explore ways to make paternity leave more flexible. It also committed to examining how the parental leave system can help shift societal norms around caregiving and gender roles.

To inform future reforms, the government plans to hold focus groups and roundtables with parents, advocacy groups, trade unions, and employers later this year. These discussions will feed into new employer guidance and equality action plans, which will include transparency around parental leave policies and flexible working arrangements.

The review will also assess whether the current system meets the needs of self-employed parents, who generally lack access to family-related leave entitlements apart from maternity allowance. The government will consider whether similar support should be extended to fathers and kinship carers (those raising children who are not their own).

A new £40 million Kinship Allowance pilot will launch later this year to test financial support for families taking in children through informal care arrangements.

Additionally, the review will examine fairness for single-parent families and parents of twins, triplets and other multiple births, drawing on international models highlighted by the WEC.

Any changes resulting from the review are unlikely to be implemented before 2027, but the ERB will deliver some early wins by expanding access to unpaid leave and removing key restrictions.

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