The study findings are timely given the new Labour Government’s Manifesto commitment to reviewing the parental leave system within its first year in office. The previous Government’s own evaluation of SPL published last year, found that only 1% of eligible mothers and 5% of eligible fathers took it.

The Department for Business and Trade recently published their report evaluating whether the SPL scheme has achieved its original objectives (the ‘Report’). The long-awaited Report has revealed that only 1% of eligible mothers and 5% of eligible fathers and partners have taken up SPL. HMRC data shows that those in receipt of Shared Parental Pay has... See more

“Looking only at parents who are potentially eligible for SPL – i.e. both are working – our study revealed that, on average, there had been no significant increase in the number of new fathers taking up leave.”

“In a sense, that is not surprising, as a high proportion would have started taking some form of paternity leave when it was first... See more