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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of women who have taken maternity leave have taken their full entitlement of 12 months in each of the last three years.

In order to gather information among parents on how parental entitlements, including Maternity Leave and Pay, are used in practice, the Government commissioned the Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey. Fieldwork for the survey is complete and we are currently processing and analysing the data that we have collected. We intend to publish our findings, including detailed information on the duration of Maternity Leave taken by mothers surveyed, later this year.