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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has undertaken on the effectiveness of shared parental leave arrangements.

The Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme gives working families much more choice and flexibility about who cares for their child in the first year, and when.

Evaluating Shared Parental Leave and Pay is an important part of the policymaking process.

As part of the evaluation, in 2019, we commissioned large, representative surveys of parents and employers which asked about a range of parental leave and pay entitlements as well as their experience of Shared Parental Leave specifically. We also consulted on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay.

The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the extent to which the implementation and take-up of Shared Parental Leave achieves its original objectives. Our findings will be published in due course.