Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer of 9 February 2021 to Question 146798 on Paternity Leave and the Answer of 21 May 2021 to Question 829 on Parental Pay, how many people received Statutory Shared Parental Pay in 2020-21, by the number of months in the year that they made a claim.
Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Pay was introduced in December 2014 for the parents of children due or adopted from 5 April 2015. The scheme enables eligible working parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay in the first year, where the mother does not intend to use her full maternity entitlements.
Information provided by employers to HMRC in respect of claims for Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) by Quarter3 indicates that 4,500 individuals were in receipt of ShPP in Quarter 1 of 2021-22, and 5,300 individuals were in receipt of ShPP in Quarter 2 of 2021-22. Data for Quarter 3 of 2021-22 is not yet available.
HMRC does not hold information which calculates the total duration of ShPP received by individual claimants. However, the Table 1 sets out the number of individuals in receipt of ShPP in 2020-21 by the number of months4 in the year that they made a claim:
Number of months claimed4 in 2020-21 | Number of individuals in receipt of ShPP |
1 | 3,400 |
2 | 2,700 |
3 | 2,100 |
4 | 1,400 |
5 | 700 |
6 | 500 |
7 | 300 |
8 | 100 |
9 | 100 |
Please note:
The Government conducted a £1.5 million communications campaign in 2018 to promote the Shared Parental Leave Scheme. In addition to this campaign, we have also undertaken cost-free communications activities to promote the scheme such as blogs by parents who have taken the leave and articles regarding the introduction of the online tool which enables parents to map out leave with their partner
The number of hours officials spend on individual projects is not held centrally.
In order for fathers/partners to take Shared Parental Leave, the child’s mother must curtail their entitlement to 52 weeks of Maternity Leave and 39 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance to potentially share any remaining weeks of leave and pay with the child’s father/their partner or take SPL themselves (they may wish to do this as SPL is more flexible than Maternity Leave).
Information provided by employers to HMRC in respect of claims for Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) show the number of individuals (including mothers and fathers/partners) in receipt of ShPP. This data provides a broad indication of the level of SPL take-up for parental leave entitlements but does not include anyone taking unpaid Shared Parental Leave. Table 2 sets out the number of individuals in receipt of ShPP in each year since 2015-16.
Year (Apr to Mar unless otherwise stated) | No. of individuals6 in receipt of Statutory Shared Parental Pay |
2015-16 | 6,200 |
2016-17 | 8,600 |
2017-18 | 9,200 |
2018-19 | 10,700 |
2019-20 | 12,600 |
2020-21 | 11,200 |
2021-22 (Apr 21 to Sep 21) | 7,600 |
Notes