Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many people used shared parental leave in the last year.

Information provided by employers to HMRC shows that in 2023/24 (the latest year for which full year data is available), 17,200 individuals were in receipt of Statutory Shared Parental Pay. Data for earlier years was published as part of the Shared Parental Leave evaluation. Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information is subject to revision.

This data provides a broad indication of take-up but does not include anyone taking unpaid leave. Information on the sector or industry worked in by the recipient of Shared Parental Pay is not available.

The Government commissioned the Parental Rights Survey as part of the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) evaluation which provides information on the sector parents taking SPL work in. Findings from the evaluation are available here (see figure 4.10 for sector information) - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/shared-parental-leave-spl-evaluation