In more detail
In its pre-election Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering A New Deal for Working People, the Labour party stated its intention to review the parental leave system within its first year of government. The reference to parental leave here is to all types of family-related leave for parents, not just the existing, specific type of leave which is called parental leave.
The government has published a Summary of existing evidence on the existing entitlements and has launched a call for evidence as part of its review.
The call for evidence covers:
- Maternity leave and pay
- Paternity leave and pay
- Adoption leave and pay
- Shared parental leave and pay
- Parental bereavement leave and pay
- Parental leave (unpaid)
- Neonatal care leave and pay
- Maternity allowance
- A new employment right - bereaved partner's paternity leave (unpaid)
(UK employees are not entitled to bereaved partner's paternity leave at present. The right is contained in the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024, which would give fathers and partners the immediate right to take paternity leave if the child's mother, adoptive parent or surrogate dies in the first year of the child's life. Although the Act received Royal Assent in 2024, secondary legislation is required to fill out the detail and bring the right into effect, and the right is described as being "under development" in the call for evidence.)
The scope for change is therefore considerable, although it seems unlikely that the government would roll-back existing entitlements.
One area that we anticipate attracting considerable comment is shared parental leave and pay. It is a procedurally complex entitlement, and evidence suggests that it has not been widely adopted (see, for example, the summary of existing evidence linked above).
In our experience, some employers have sought to introduce consistency across the forms of enhanced family leave that they offer in order to streamline arrangements and encourage broader take-up across the workforce, with a view to addressing some of the challenges that may be faced by those with childcare responsibilities.
As employees increasingly take up the various leave options available, there is likely to be an increased risk of conflict of priority (as the number of those entitled to enhanced redundancy protection increases). Existing Acas guidance advises that employers will have to decide who is most suitable for the available roles, using criteria such as skills, job knowledge and experience. It will be interesting to see if the government considers this issue further.
In the meantime, pending the outcome of this review, the Employment Rights Bill contains provisions that will make the existing rights to parental leave (unpaid) and paternity leave (paid) day-one rights. This extension of these two rights is due to come into force in April 2026.
