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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to (1) adopt the EU’s Work-life Balance Directive, (2) make paternity leave a day one right, (3) increase paternity pay, and (4) introduce eight weeks of paid parental leave as part of each parent’s current unpaid 18-week entitlement.

The Government is committed to maintaining and enhancing workers’ rights, and to supporting people to balance their work and caring responsibilities. This month we laid regulations in Parliament which will give grieving parents a right to paid time off work. We also committed in the Queen’s Speech to bring forward an Employment Bill which will introduce a new entitlement to carer's leave; and introduce a new entitlement to leave and pay for parents of children who spend time in neonatal care. Our manifesto committed to make it easier for fathers to take paternity leave; we have recently consulted on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay, including Paternity Leave and Pay and Unpaid Parental Leave, and will respond to this consultation in due course.

After we leave the EU, we will be able to set our own standards for workers’ rights, and we intend to use this opportunity to make the UK the best place in the world to work.