Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether their Department offers its staff shared parental leave from their first working day.

To qualify for shared parental leave, an employee must have been in continuous employment with the Civil Service for 26 weeks up to and including the fifteenth week before the week in which their baby is due to be born.

As with any changes to employment legislation, internal policies and processes will be updated as appropriate in preparation for when the Employment Rights Bill 2024 comes into effect.

The Civil Service management code states that, departments and agencies may only grant shared parental leave in accordance with the statutory requirements governing eligibility for this category of leave. However, some staff could qualify for statutory shared parental leave on their first day of service with a department because they already have qualifying service with another department.