Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of increasing the length of time for which paternity pay is awarded from two to four weeks.

We recently published our response to the consultation on parental leave and pay. This detailed our planned reforms to make Paternity Leave and Pay more flexible and easier to take, including increasing the period of time within which leave can be taken and allowing it to be taken in non-consecutive blocks. In line with other parental pay entitlements, Paternity Pay is paid at the statutory rate.

The standard rate of Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Maternity Pay is reviewed annually and from April 2023, it increased by September's CPI figure of 10.1 per cent to £172.48.