The UK’s parental leave system is “broken” and urgently requires comprehensive reform, according to a new report from the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC).
MPs say short paternity leave, inadequate pay and a complicated shared parental leave scheme are failing modern families and leaving the country lagging behind comparable nations.
The report urges the government to deliver more than minor updates. Instead, MPs want an overhaul that reflects the realities of contemporary working life, with a focus on improving wellbeing, gender equality and workforce retention.
Major Gaps In Current Policy
At present, fathers and partners are entitled to just two weeks’ statutory paternity leave, typically paid at less than half the National Living Wage. The committee found this provision falls far short of international norms and reinforces outdated gender roles. Self-employed parents and many carers remain excluded from statutory support, a situation described as “deeply unfair”.
The Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme, which aims to give parents flexibility to split care, is so complex that only around 3–5% of eligible families use it. Many respondents to the committee’s inquiry described SPL as “extremely difficult” to access or simply unaffordable due to low pay.
Key Recommendations From The Report
- Extend paid paternity leave to six weeks at or near 90% of average earnings, phased in during this Parliament
- Create a “day-one” right to paid paternity leave in upcoming legislation
- Introduce a Paternity Allowance for self-employed parents, mirroring Maternity Allowance
- Simplify or overhaul the SPL scheme to improve access and take-up
- Promote cultural change through behavioural incentives, learning from schemes such as “A Better Start” and initiatives in countries like Germany and Portugal
Why Reform Matters
The committee points to evidence showing that countries with more generous parental leave entitlements have smaller gender pay gaps and better workplace wellbeing outcomes. In the UK, many fathers are deterred from taking leave due to financial pressures or workplace expectations, meaning mothers shoulder a greater share of unpaid care.
Survey responses submitted to the inquiry revealed that the low level of statutory pay makes taking extended leave a “financial non-starter” for many families, while eligibility barriers lock out self-employed workers and those with non-traditional family arrangements.
An ‘Urgent Need’
Women and Equalities Committee chair Sarah Owen MP said the UK’s parental leave system “is in urgent need of an overhaul to fit with the reality of working parents’ lives. This must start with longer and better paid paternity leave”.
She said it was “essential the Government’s proposed review addresses the system’s fundamental failings, including low statutory pay, inadequate leave periods for fathers and others, exclusion of many working parents and guardians, plus design flaws and unnecessary complexity in the Shared Parental Leave scheme.”
She added that Britain’s parental leave system “has fallen far behind most comparable countries, and we now have one of the worst statutory leave offers for fathers and other parents in the developed world. Countries which provide a substantial period of well-paid leave for all parents have on average a four-percentage point smaller gender pay gap than those that allow less than six weeks”.
Ministers should enact “meaningful reforms in the medium term” with an aim of “a more gender-equal” parental leave system, she said. “Tinkering around the edges of a broken system will let down working parents. While much-needed substantial change to our paid parental leave system will require considerable financial investment, this would be outweighed by wider societal and economic benefits.”
Support from Employer Groups
HR professionals and employer groups, including the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), have supported the recommendations. Claire McCartney, policy and practice manager at the CIPD, said that improved paternity pay and leave would help balance caring responsibilities, ease financial pressures and support staff retention.
“We welcome this report from the WEC and its calls for the government to ensure a meaningful review of the UK’s parental leave system, that fits the reality of working parents’ lives,” she said. “The system in its current form isn’t working, and there needs to be a holistic and thorough review from government, that supports better, fairer and fuller employment.”
McCartney said the CIPD was “pleased to see the WEC’s recommendations to increase paternity leave up to six weeks at or near the full rate of pay, through a phased approach, and to simplify the currently very complicated shared parental leave system”.
She added that it was “important that the government review considers lessons learnt from successful international approaches and the steps it can take to reduce wider cultural and societal barriers to fathers taking more leave”.