New Businesses: Families

(asked on 25th March 2019) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what support his Department is providing to entrepreneurs with family care responsibilities.


Answered by
Kelly Tolhurst Portrait
Kelly Tolhurst
This question was answered on 1st April 2019

The Government is committed to supporting all entrepreneurs to start and grow a business and is a key aspect of our ambitious Industrial Strategy. The Government supports diversity in all its forms in business and recognises the valuable contribution they make to our economy.

On 6th March BEIS launched the Young Entrepreneurs Review, independently led by the Prince’s Trust. The Review will close in September 2019 and will seek to better understand young entrepreneurs, the specific barriers and opportunities they face, and what more can be done to support them to start and grow a business, including young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Department ensures that the Shared Parental Leave and Pay Scheme enables eligible couples to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay, in the first year.    We are currently evaluating the scheme and have commissioned both quantitative and qualitative data on the level of take-up; barriers to take-up; and how the scheme is being used in practice. Last year, GEO and BEIS ran a joint £1.5m campaign to promote awareness and take-up of Shared Parental Leave and Pay and a campaign to raise awareness launched last month. We are exploring options for improving tools and guidance for parents.

Pregnant women and new mothers who are self-employed may qualify for Maternity Allowance (a benefit which is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions). Where they do not intend to use their full entitlement to Maternity Allowance they can ‘create’ up to 50 weeks of Shared Parental Leave and up to 37 weeks of Statutory Shared Parental Pay for an employed father or partner to take (subject to eligibility conditions).

Employed directors can qualify for a range of employment rights including Maternity Leave and Pay (or Maternity Allowance), Paternity Leave and Pay, Adoption Leave and Pay and Shared Parental Leave and Pay. Maternity and Adoption Leave are ‘day 1’ rights. Other family related employment entitlements are subject to eligibility conditions.

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