Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish (a) parental leave policies and (b) flexible working policies which apply to special constables.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises and values the professionalism, dedication and sacrifice shown by special constables in their work, alongside other policing volunteers. The Home Office continues to work closely with policing partners, particularly the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing on the Citizens in Policing Programme and the National Strategy for the Special Constabulary. These partnerships support the development of a national approach to the attraction, retention and training of special constables
There are no plans to publish national parental leave policies and flexible working policies which apply to special constables. It is a matter for each police force to decide how best to support and reward special constables in the form of allowances, expenses or other benefits, as part of their retention and attraction plans. National guidance is set by the College of Policing and Home Office on expenses and allowance rates for special constables - Special constables: expense and allowance rates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish (a) parental leave policies and (b) policies relating to flexible working which apply to members of the (i) Army Reserves, (ii) RAF Reserves, (iii) Naval Reserves and (iv) other military reserve units.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Parental leave policies are contained in Joint Service Publication (JSP) 760 ‘Tri-Service Regulations for Leave and other Types of Absence’ and tri-Service policies on flexible working are contained within Joint Service Publication (JSP) 750 ‘Centrally Determined Terms of Service’.
JSP 760 can be found at the following website: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1144674/JSP760_20230321.pdf. The relevant chapter of JSP 750 is Chapter 1 (Flexible Working - Alternative Working Arrangements), which is applicable to both Regular and Reserve personnel. Chapter 2 (Flexible Working – Flexible Service) is not applicable to Reserves; however, Reservists’ terms and conditions of service already offer a range of commitment types that cover part-time working and full-time working with limits on separation from assigned location. A copy of Chapters 1 and 2 of JSP 750 will be placed in the Library of the House.
JSPs are usually detailed, deep policy publications and therefore to make the information more accessible a ‘Flexible Working and You’ guide has also been produced to complement the JSP. A copy can be found at the following website: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1153094/Flexible_Working_and_You_Apr_2023.pdf
Additionally, policy for parental leave and flexible working for Army Reservists is contained within the Reserve Land Forces Regulations 2016, the latest amendment of which can be found at the following address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-reserve-land-forces-regulations-2016-amendment-number-3
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of accrued interest on student loans on the ability of women to pay off student loan debts.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Government wants a sustainable student finance system that is fair to students and taxpayers, and which continues to enable anyone with the ability and the ambition to benefit from higher education to do so. The student finance system will continue to protect borrowers, including women on maternity leave, or any person on any form of parental leave, if they see a reduction in their income. Student loan repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant repayment threshold.
The recent student loan, Plan 5 reforms, will make the student loan system fairer for taxpayers and fairer for students, helping to keep the system sustainable in the long term. The new loan plan asks graduates to repay for longer and from an income threshold of £25,000 per year, but also increases certainty for borrowers by reducing interest rates to match inflation only. This change ensures that borrowers on the new Plan 5 terms will not repay, under those terms, more than they originally borrowed over the lifetime of their loans, when adjusted for inflation.
Lower earners will still be protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold of, currently, £25,000 per year, they won’t be required to make any repayments at all. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of borrower protection.
A comprehensive equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022. More information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure there is no adverse financial impact on women of student loan interest accrued while they are on maternity leave.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Government wants a sustainable student finance system that is fair to students and taxpayers, and which continues to enable anyone with the ability and the ambition to benefit from higher education to do so. The student finance system will continue to protect borrowers, including women on maternity leave, or any person on any form of parental leave, if they see a reduction in their income. Student loan repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly income, not the interest rate or amount borrowed, and no repayments are made for earnings below the relevant repayment threshold.
The recent student loan, Plan 5 reforms, will make the student loan system fairer for taxpayers and fairer for students, helping to keep the system sustainable in the long term. The new loan plan asks graduates to repay for longer and from an income threshold of £25,000 per year, but also increases certainty for borrowers by reducing interest rates to match inflation only. This change ensures that borrowers on the new Plan 5 terms will not repay, under those terms, more than they originally borrowed over the lifetime of their loans, when adjusted for inflation.
Lower earners will still be protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold of, currently, £25,000 per year, they won’t be required to make any repayments at all. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of borrower protection.
A comprehensive equality impact assessment of how the student loan reforms may affect graduates, including detail on changes to average lifetime repayments under Plan 5, was produced and published in February 2022. More information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing (a) the length of time for which paternity pay is awarded and (b) the level of paternity pay when the mother is not working.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We recently published our response to the consultation on parental leave and pay. This detailed our planned reforms to make Paternity Leave and Pay more flexible and easier to take, including increasing the period of time within which leave can be taken and allowing it to be taken in non-consecutive blocks. In line with other parental pay entitlements, Paternity Pay is paid at the statutory rate.
The standard rate of Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Maternity Pay is reviewed annually and from April 2023, it increased by September's CPI figure of 10.1 per cent to £172.48.
Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of increasing the length of time for which paternity pay is awarded from two to four weeks.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We recently published our response to the consultation on parental leave and pay. This detailed our planned reforms to make Paternity Leave and Pay more flexible and easier to take, including increasing the period of time within which leave can be taken and allowing it to be taken in non-consecutive blocks. In line with other parental pay entitlements, Paternity Pay is paid at the statutory rate.
The standard rate of Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Maternity Pay is reviewed annually and from April 2023, it increased by September's CPI figure of 10.1 per cent to £172.48.
Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing the level of paternity pay.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We recently published our response to the consultation on parental leave and pay. This detailed our planned reforms to make Paternity Leave and Pay more flexible and easier to take, including increasing the period of time within which leave can be taken and allowing it to be taken in non-consecutive blocks. In line with other parental pay entitlements, Paternity Pay is paid at the statutory rate.
The standard rate of Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Maternity Pay is reviewed annually and from April 2023, it increased by September's CPI figure of 10.1 per cent to £172.48.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department is taking steps to encourage employers to offer (a) leave and (b) pay for neonatal care before the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 comes into force.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to introducing Neonatal Care Leave and Pay as soon as possible. Once in place, up to 12 weeks of paid leave will be available to all eligible parents of babies who are admitted into neonatal care.
The Government encourages employers to respond with compassion and understanding to any employee who is dealing with the challenge of having a child in neonatal care. It will be up to individual employers to consider whether they can offer leave or pay to their employees before the Act comes into force.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make it her policy to introduce paid leave for kinship carers.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Kinship carers can already benefit from many workplace entitlements designed to help parents and carers combine work with childcare. These include unpaid parental leave, emergency time off for dependents and the right to request flexible working.
In our government response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, we committed to explore the introduction of additional workplace entitlements for kinship carers. Since then, work has been underway across government to better understand how government can support kinship carers to balance work and childcare. The Department for Education is committed to publishing a national kinship strategy by the end of 2023.
Asked by: Miriam Cates (Conservative - Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of hours children under the age of two are likely to spend in a formal childcare due to the Government's free childcare provisions in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
In the Government’s Spring Budget on 15 March 2023, the Chancellor announced transformative reforms to childcare for parents, children, the economy and women. By 2027/28, the department will expect to be spending in excess of £8 billion every year on free hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
From April 2024, eligible working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare per week (over 38 weeks a year) from the term after their 2nd birthday, benefitting parents of up to 285,000 children. This will be extended to eligible working parents of children aged 9 months and over from September 2024, benefitting up to 640,000 children in total. From September 2025, this will be extended to 30 hours of free childcare per week.
Childcare is a vital enabler for parents to work. The new offer for working parents will tackle this barrier by closing the gap between parental leave ending and the government’s current entitlement offers so that more parents, and especially women, are supported to enter work.
The department monitors the average hours of childcare used by children of different ages via the Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents.
In January 2023, 88.5% of disadvantaged 2-year-olds registered for the 15-hour entitlement were taking up between 12.51 and 15 hours of funded childcare per week.