'Outdated' policy | Parental leave review a 'watershed moment' as experts call for urgent reform

The Government’s upcoming review of parental leave must deliver significant change or risk “letting down” working families, the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) has warned.

Publishing its response to WEC’s June report on paternity and shared parental leave, the Government confirmed it will run an 18-month review of the UK’s parental leave system. While ministers have pledged to consider international models and the “fundamental failings” of the current approach, campaigners, MPs and employment experts have said the Government must go further.

UK ‘one of the worst leave offers’ in the developed world

WEC’s report concluded that the UK has “one of the worst leave offers in the developed world for fathers and other parents”. The current two-week maximum entitlement for paternity leave, it said, is “completely out of step with how most couples want to share their parenting responsibilities” and “entrenches outdated gender stereotypes about caring”.

Committee chair Sarah Owen MP described the forthcoming review as “a watershed moment for working families which leads to far reaching improvements”. But she warned: “WEC’s report warned tinkering around the edges of a broken system will let down working parents. As the Government pursues its economic growth agenda, the UK cannot afford to continue with a parental leave system which has fallen far behind most comparable countries and has one of the worst statutory leave offers for fathers and other parents in the developed world.”