Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending paternity leave for the residents of Newton Abbot constituency.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We recognise that more can be done to support working families. That is why, through the Employment Rights Bill, we are making Paternity Leave a ‘day one’ right, which will bring an extra 32,000 fathers and partners into scope of the entitlement.
On 1 July we launched the Parental Leave and Pay Review, which will consider all existing and upcoming parental leave entitlements, including Paternity Leave and Pay. When considering calls to increase entitlements for parents, the Government will balance the needs of parents, the impact on employers, and affordability for taxpayers.
Asked by: Joe Morris (Labour - Hexham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department has taken to improve parental rights for workers in the North East.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Through the Employment Rights Bill, we are strengthening rights for parents by making Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights for qualifying employees, removing restrictions on taking Paternity Leave after Shared Parental Leave, strengthening flexible working rights, and bolstering protections for new and expectant mothers. On 1 July we launched the Parental Leave Review which will consider how parental leave can better reflect modern work and childcare realities and support working families.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing Statutory Maternity Pay to the level of the National Living Wage on women’s labour market (a) participation and (b) retention following childbirth.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to review the parental leave and pay system. All current and upcoming parental leave and pay entitlements are in scope of the Parental Leave and Pay Review.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people claimed (a) Statutory Maternity Leave, (b) Statutory Paternity Leave and (c) Statutory Parental Leave by income decile in the 2024/25 financial year.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Numbers of individuals in receipt of statutory payments, including breakdowns by income decile, are published here:
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data his Department holds on (a) the number of claimants and (b) the total value of payments of (i) Statutory Maternity Leave, (ii) Statutory Paternity Leave, and (iii) Shared Parental Leave by occupation for each of the last three years.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information provided by employers to HMRC shows that the total value of payments made to individuals in receipt of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP) for 2024/25, the latest year for which full year data is available.
The table below presents a breakdown of the value of payments made to individuals by the region, based on recipient residence.
Table 1. Total value of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP) payments by claimant resident region, 2024/25
Government Office Region | Total value of SMP payments | Total value of SPP payments | Total value of SShPP payments |
East Midlands | £213,500,000 | £5,200,000 | £2,900,000 |
East of England | £328,100,000 | £6,800,000 | £3,900,000 |
London | £631,800,000 | £11,100,000 | £8,000,000 |
North East | £109,100,000 | £2,600,000 | £1,800,000 |
North West | £350,100,000 | £8,000,000 | £4,900,000 |
Northern Ireland | £104,500,000 | £2,200,000 | £1,300,000 |
Scotland | £234,300,000 | £5,500,000 | £1,800,000 |
South East | £481,200,000 | £9,900,000 | £7,600,000 |
South West | £245,900,000 | £5,600,000 | £5,200,000 |
Wales | £132,100,000 | £3,100,000 | £2,000,000 |
West Midlands | £267,700,000 | £6,600,000 | £3,000,000 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | £242,900,000 | £5,900,000 | £3,800,000 |
Unknown | £249,600,000 | £4,700,000 | £3,300,000 |
Total | £3,590,800,000 | £77,200,000 | £49,500,000 |
Source: HM Revenue and Customers (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI) system 2024/25
Notes:
1. All figures are based on HMRC RTI system and were extracted in Aug 2025. RTI is subject to revision and there may be small fluctuations in figures reported - these figures should not be considered “final”.
2. Figures for the total value of parental payments (£m) are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
3. Government Office Regions (GOR) are determined by matching the most recent postcode from the previous tax year with the Office for National Statistics’ postcode lookup table. If a partial postcode is provided an assumption is made based on the postcode district or area. The GOR with the most postcodes of a given district is returned. If no postcode is listed then region is marked as unknown.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) does not hold data on the number of individuals in receipt or the value of payments of SMP, SPP and SShPP by occupation. However, the Government commissioned the Parental Rights Survey which provides the best source of data on the occupation of parents who have taken parental leave, the findings are published here - https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/parental-rights-survey-2019 .
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the value was of (a) Statutory Maternity Leave, (b) Statutory Paternity Leave and (c) Statutory Parental Leave in each region in the 2024/25 financial year.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information provided by employers to HMRC shows that the total value of payments made to individuals in receipt of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP) for 2024/25, the latest year for which full year data is available.
The table below presents a breakdown of the value of payments made to individuals by the region, based on recipient residence.
Table 1. Total value of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP) payments by claimant resident region, 2024/25
Government Office Region | Total value of SMP payments | Total value of SPP payments | Total value of SShPP payments |
East Midlands | £213,500,000 | £5,200,000 | £2,900,000 |
East of England | £328,100,000 | £6,800,000 | £3,900,000 |
London | £631,800,000 | £11,100,000 | £8,000,000 |
North East | £109,100,000 | £2,600,000 | £1,800,000 |
North West | £350,100,000 | £8,000,000 | £4,900,000 |
Northern Ireland | £104,500,000 | £2,200,000 | £1,300,000 |
Scotland | £234,300,000 | £5,500,000 | £1,800,000 |
South East | £481,200,000 | £9,900,000 | £7,600,000 |
South West | £245,900,000 | £5,600,000 | £5,200,000 |
Wales | £132,100,000 | £3,100,000 | £2,000,000 |
West Midlands | £267,700,000 | £6,600,000 | £3,000,000 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | £242,900,000 | £5,900,000 | £3,800,000 |
Unknown | £249,600,000 | £4,700,000 | £3,300,000 |
Total | £3,590,800,000 | £77,200,000 | £49,500,000 |
Source: HM Revenue and Customers (HMRC) Real Time Information (RTI) system 2024/25
Notes:
1. All figures are based on HMRC RTI system and were extracted in Aug 2025. RTI is subject to revision and there may be small fluctuations in figures reported - these figures should not be considered “final”.
2. Figures for the total value of parental payments (£m) are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand.
3. Government Office Regions (GOR) are determined by matching the most recent postcode from the previous tax year with the Office for National Statistics’ postcode lookup table. If a partial postcode is provided an assumption is made based on the postcode district or area. The GOR with the most postcodes of a given district is returned. If no postcode is listed then region is marked as unknown.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) does not hold data on the number of individuals in receipt or the value of payments of SMP, SPP and SShPP by occupation. However, the Government commissioned the Parental Rights Survey which provides the best source of data on the occupation of parents who have taken parental leave, the findings are published here - https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/parental-rights-survey-2019 .
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of raising statutory maternity and paternity pay to match the National Living Wage.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to review the parental leave and pay system. All current and upcoming parental leave and pay entitlements are in scope of the Parental Leave and Pay Review.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether he has had recent discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive on the introduction of neonatal care leave and pay in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
I welcome the introduction earlier this year of neonatal care leave and pay in Great Britain, which will provide vital support to parents whose babies require specialist care in the first weeks of life, ensuring they will have additional time away from work at such a critical time.
My ministerial team and officials regularly engage with the Northern Ireland Executive and we are aware of the ongoing discussions about the possibility of leave and pay for parents whose newborn babies require neonatal care being introduced in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to take steps to ensure that (a) kinship and (b) foster carers have the same employment leave rights as (i) adoptive, (ii) maternity and (iii) paternity carers.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has committed to conducting a review of the whole parental leave system. This review was launched on 1 July and represents a much-needed opportunity to consider our approach to the system of parental leave and pay.
The department will also consider whether the support available meets the needs of other working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers.
Foster carers who combine fostering with paid employment have a range of existing workplace rights and legal entitlements to help manage their dual responsibilities, including the right to request flexible working from day one, introduced through the Employment Rights Bill, and adoption leave where applicable. The department also supports The Fostering Network’s ‘Fostering Friendly Employers’ campaign.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress his Department has made on improving parental rights for workers in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We are strengthening rights for parents through the Employment Rights Bill, including making Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights for qualifying employees, removing restrictions on taking Paternity Leave after Shared Parental Leave, strengthening flexible working rights, and bolstering protections for new and expectant mothers. We also launched the Parental Leave Review on 1 July which will consider how parental leave can better reflect modern work and childcare realities and support working families.