Companies: Parental Leave Practices

Lord Fox Excerpts
Wednesday 10th July 2019

(5 years, 4 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Henley Portrait Lord Henley
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My Lords, again it is fair to say that the noble Lord is right to highlight that there has been a low take-up of shared parental leave. We will want to look at this to make sure that people can benefit from it. We will work on that, but I give him an assurance that that is what the department is doing.

Lord Fox Portrait Lord Fox (LD)
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My Lords, picking up on that point, research done this year at the University of Birmingham indicates that it is not just parents or potential parents who have low knowledge of shared parental leave; it is also the managers and HR departments within companies themselves. Will the Minister undertake to have an enhanced information campaign within businesses to improve uptake of shared parental leave?

Lord Henley Portrait Lord Henley
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I am more than happy to look at that because there is no point in introducing new measures to assist new employees if the employers, HR departments and others do not know about them. I am not aware of the research the noble Lord has highlighted but I am happy to look at it.