Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people were in receipt of (a) Statutory Maternity Pay, (b) Statutory Paternity Pay, (c) Statutory Adoption Pay and (d) Statutory Shared Parental Pay in the 2022-23 financial year.

Information provided by employers to HMRC show the number of individuals in receipt of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (SShPP). This data provides a broad indication of take-up but does not include anyone taking unpaid leave. Data for the 2022-23 financial year is incomplete, and we therefore provide data for the 2021-22 financial year.

Table 1: Individuals in receipt of SMP, SPP, SAP, SShPP in 2021/22 (the latest year for which full year data is available)

Notes

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.

1. Figures are based on the total number of individuals in a given year, irrespective of when the payment first started.