Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many and what proportion of eligible men have taken up shared parental leave since it was introduced.

The Government does not hold information on the take-up of Shared Parental Leave since it was introduced in December 2014 for the parents of children due or placed for adoption from 5 April 2015.

Based on a small sample of the data provided to HM Revenue & Customs by employers, we estimate that around 6,000 employees claimed either statutory Shared Parental Pay or Additional Paternity Pay (the predecessor to Shared Parental Pay) in 2015/16.