Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the rules on shared parental leave have to be legally the same for men and women working at the same company.

Parents who are eligible for Shared Parental Leave and Statutory Shared Parental Pay have the flexibility to share up to 50 weeks of Leave and 37 weeks of Statutory Pay between them, as they see fit. Both parents can use Shared Parental Leave to take leave in blocks separated by periods of work, or take it all in one go. They can also choose to be off work together or to stagger the leave and pay. For both parents, Shared Parental Pay is paid at the rate of £151.20 a week or 90% of their average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Some employers may wish to offer occupational parental schemes for men and women taking shared parental leave, beyond the statutory requirements. The Shared Parental Leave and Pay: Employer’s technical guide published on gov.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/shared-parental-leave-and-pay-employers-technical-guide) clearly states that it if an occupational scheme is offered to a mother on Shared Parental Leave, it could constitute sex discrimination if such an occupational scheme were not offered to fathers/a mother’s partner.