Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the (a) mean and (b) median number of weeks of maternity leave taken by new mothers is; and what proportion of new mothers take (i) 1-25 weeks, (ii) 26 weeks, (iii) 27-38 weeks, (iv) 39 weeks, (v) 40-51 weeks, (vi) 52 weeks and (vii) 53 weeks or more of maternity leave.

The Department for Business and Trade does not routinely collect data on the length of maternity leave taken by mothers. However, in order to gather information among parents on how parental entitlements, including Maternity Leave, are used in practice, the Government commissioned the Parental Rights Survey as part of the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) evaluation.

We intend to publish the SPL evaluation and underpinning research, which includes information on the duration of Statutory Maternity Leave, in due course. Findings from the previous Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey are available here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-and-paternity-rights-and-women-returners-survey-200910-rr777