Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress his Department has made on improving parental rights for workers in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.

We are strengthening rights for parents through the Employment Rights Bill, including making Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights for qualifying employees, removing restrictions on taking Paternity Leave after Shared Parental Leave, strengthening flexible working rights, and bolstering protections for new and expectant mothers. We also launched the Parental Leave Review on 1 July which will consider how parental leave can better reflect modern work and childcare realities and support working families.