Government review of parental leave and pay 

The Government has launched a wide-ranging review of parental leave and pay, to consider how the current system could be improved to better support working families and meet the needs of the modern economy.  

The review, which forms part of the Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay, is expected to run for a period of 18 months. It will consider all existing forms of parental leave, including maternity, paternity and shared parental leave, to see how it can work better for parents and employers. The review notes that the current system has developed incrementally over many years and has not been designed to operate as a single coherent system.  

The Government’s aims of the review are to: 

• articulate objectives for the parental leave and pay system, setting the foundation for considering what an improved system should deliver 

• expand the existing evidence base and understanding of the current system, to assess what is and is not working well for families and employers 

• consider the options and principles for a system that better supports the Government’s objectives 

• deliver a roadmap for how to move to a system that better supports these objectives (bearing in mind economic constraints). 

The proposed objectives for considering the current system and the case for future reform are as follows: 

• Supporting the physical and mental health, recovery and wellbeing of women during pregnancy and post-partum. 

• Supporting economic growth by enabling more parents to stay in work and advance their careers after starting a family. 

• Ensuring sufficient resources and time away from work to support new and expectant parents’ wellbeing and facilitate the best start in life for babies. 

• Supporting parents to make balanced childcare choices that work for their family and reflecting the realities of modern work and childcare needs. 

Alongside the review, a ‘Call for Evidence’ has been published seeking views on the Government’s objectives and how they relate to the current parental leave and pay entitlements. It includes a useful overview of the current system, summarising the various different entitlements and take-up statistics. The Call for Evidence will be open until 25 August 2025. 

The Birketts view 

The Employment Rights Bill already includes several measures designed to improve the current parental leave system, which include making paternity leave and (unpaid) parental leave a ‘day one’ right. These changes represent only minor ‘tinkering around the edges’ of what the Government recognises as an overly complex system that does not currently meet the needs of modern families.  

It is possible that following the outcome of this latest review, we will see some more radical changes to parental leave entitlements. However, these changes will not occur in the near (or even middle-distance) future. After the review has concluded in December 2026, the Government will publish its findings alongside a roadmap setting out the next steps for implementing any proposed reforms. The Government will need to undertake further consultation before introducing new legislation, meaning that it might be close to the next General Election (or even beyond) before we see a reformed system in place.