Inquiry into paternity and shared parental leave by the Women and Equalities Committee

The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) states that the unequal division of childcaring responsibilities is a key driver of wider gender inequality and the gender pay gap. It is looking at options for reform of the statutory shared parental leave scheme and statutory paternity rights. The aim is to identify the most effective ways of providing an incentive for more equal sharing of childcare and wider domestic responsibilities between mothers and their partners.

The WEC is inviting written submissions on the following:

• To what extent has the statutory shared parental leave scheme given parents choice and flexibility in how they share parenting responsibilities in the first year?
• What have been the longer-term equality impacts of the scheme, for example on equal sharing of responsibilities for children as they grow up, and wider domestic responsibilities?
• What have been the labour market impacts of the scheme, particularly for women?
• Why has take-up of statutory shared parental leave been low and what could be done to increase take-up?
• How can inequalities in take-up of shared parental leave, including by ethnicity, income, qualification level and occupational status, be addressed?
• Are there potentially more effective alternatives to the current ‘maternal transfer’ model of shared parental leave?
• Which countries have most effectively incentivised equal parenting and wider gender equality through their approaches to parental leave? What would be the costs and benefits of replicating these approaches in the UK?

The deadline for submitting evidence is 31 January 2025.

Further information can be found on the UK Parliament website here and the online form can be found here.

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