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Government review of parental leave regime

On 1 July 2025, the Government announced that it has launched a ‘landmark’ review of the current parental leave and pay system with a view to providing better support to working families taking account of the realities of modern work.

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Published 3 July 2025

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On 1 July 2025, the Government announced that it has launched a ‘landmark’ review of the current parental leave and pay system with a view to providing better support to working families taking account of the realities of modern work.

The announcement has been welcomed by charities and campaign groups and comes after calls by the Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC) for the Government to commit to “meaningful” reform into the current “broken” parental leave system (Full WESC Report: Equality at work: Paternity and shared parental leave). The WESC reported that UK has one of the most gender unequal statutory parental leave systems in the developed world.

The review is expected to last for 18 months and will cover all types of parental leave and pay including: maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, parental bereavement, and neonatal care leave and pay, as well as unpaid parental leave and maternity allowance.

The current system and the case for future reform will be assessed against four objectives:

  1. Maternal health: supporting the physical and mental health, recovery and wellbeing of women during pregnancy and post-partum by giving them sufficient time away from work with an appropriate level of pay.
  2. Economic growth through labour market participation: supporting economic growth by enabling more parents to stay in work and advance in their careers after starting a family, particularly to improve both women’s labour market outcomes and the gender pay gap, reducing the ‘motherhood penalty’, and harnessing benefits for employers.
  3. Best start in life: ensuring sufficient resources and time away from work to support new and expectant parents’ wellbeing and facilitating the best start in life for babies and young children, supporting health and development outcomes.
  4. Childcare: supporting parents to make balanced childcare choices that work for their family situation, including enabling co-parenting, and providing flexibility to reflect the realities of modern work and childcare needs.

The review aims to assess the effectiveness of the current parental leave and pay system and will conclude with a roadmap for potential reforms. A call for evidence is open until 25 August 2025 to gather views from different institutions and bodies, including advocacy groups, academics, businesses, trade unions, as well as parents.

Whilst the Government had pledged to “make work more family friendly” in their Plan to Make Work Pay, to date, only a limited number of changes to the parental leave system are currently in progress. These changes which are set to be implemented through the Employment Rights Bill include:

  • making paternity leave and unpaid parental leave ‘day one’ rights;
  • enhancing dismissal protections (beyond redundancy situations) for pregnant women and new mothers; and
  • strengthening the existing right to request flexible working by only permitting employers to refuse a request if it is reasonable for them to do so, and requiring employers to state the ground for any refusal and to provide an explanation as to why it is reasonable to refuse the request on those grounds.

Click here to talk to our team of Employment experts.

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Shorter Reads

Government review of parental leave regime

On 1 July 2025, the Government announced that it has launched a ‘landmark’ review of the current parental leave and pay system with a view to providing better support to working families taking account of the realities of modern work.

Published 3 July 2025

Associated sectors / services

  • Employment law for employees
  • Employment law for employers

Authors

On 1 July 2025, the Government announced that it has launched a ‘landmark’ review of the current parental leave and pay system with a view to providing better support to working families taking account of the realities of modern work.

The announcement has been welcomed by charities and campaign groups and comes after calls by the Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC) for the Government to commit to “meaningful” reform into the current “broken” parental leave system (Full WESC Report: Equality at work: Paternity and shared parental leave). The WESC reported that UK has one of the most gender unequal statutory parental leave systems in the developed world.

The review is expected to last for 18 months and will cover all types of parental leave and pay including: maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, parental bereavement, and neonatal care leave and pay, as well as unpaid parental leave and maternity allowance.

The current system and the case for future reform will be assessed against four objectives:

  1. Maternal health: supporting the physical and mental health, recovery and wellbeing of women during pregnancy and post-partum by giving them sufficient time away from work with an appropriate level of pay.
  2. Economic growth through labour market participation: supporting economic growth by enabling more parents to stay in work and advance in their careers after starting a family, particularly to improve both women’s labour market outcomes and the gender pay gap, reducing the ‘motherhood penalty’, and harnessing benefits for employers.
  3. Best start in life: ensuring sufficient resources and time away from work to support new and expectant parents’ wellbeing and facilitating the best start in life for babies and young children, supporting health and development outcomes.
  4. Childcare: supporting parents to make balanced childcare choices that work for their family situation, including enabling co-parenting, and providing flexibility to reflect the realities of modern work and childcare needs.

The review aims to assess the effectiveness of the current parental leave and pay system and will conclude with a roadmap for potential reforms. A call for evidence is open until 25 August 2025 to gather views from different institutions and bodies, including advocacy groups, academics, businesses, trade unions, as well as parents.

Whilst the Government had pledged to “make work more family friendly” in their Plan to Make Work Pay, to date, only a limited number of changes to the parental leave system are currently in progress. These changes which are set to be implemented through the Employment Rights Bill include:

  • making paternity leave and unpaid parental leave ‘day one’ rights;
  • enhancing dismissal protections (beyond redundancy situations) for pregnant women and new mothers; and
  • strengthening the existing right to request flexible working by only permitting employers to refuse a request if it is reasonable for them to do so, and requiring employers to state the ground for any refusal and to provide an explanation as to why it is reasonable to refuse the request on those grounds.

Click here to talk to our team of Employment experts.

Associated sectors / services

  • Employment law for employees
  • Employment law for employers

Authors

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