Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of childcare costs on parents' ability to return to work.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The 2023 Spring Budget announced that the department is closing the gap between parental leave ending and the current childcare offer for working parents, ensuring all parents of primary-aged children can access wraparound childcare in school.
This announcement announced the largest ever investment in childcare in England. The measures that were announced will be transformative for parents, children and the economy.
By 2027/28, the department will provide over £4.1 billion to fund 30 hours of free childcare per week, covering 38 weeks per year, for working parents which children aged nine months to three years old in England.
The department will invest £204 million in 2023/24 to uplift the rates for existing entitlements, rising to £288 million in 2024/25, with further uplifts beyond this so that providers have the funding they need to deliver childcare entitlements.
We are removing one of the largest barriers to working parents by increasing the amount of free childcare available. Childcare is a vital enabler for parents to work, which is why we are bringing forward a number of measures to support parents to return and stay in work. This new funding will empower parents, allowing them to progress in their careers and supporting their families.
The department believes all parents should have access to childcare before and after the school day to help them work. That is why we are also launching a new national wraparound childcare pilot scheme.
We will provide a total of £289 million in start-up funding to enable schools and local areas to test flexible ways of providing wraparound childcare.
By 2027/28, government funding on free hours and early education will be in excess of £8 billion a year. This will help working families with their childcare cost.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make it his policy to increase the period of eligibility for Statutory Paternity Leave.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Employed fathers and partners can take two weeks of paternity leave and pay following their child’s birth or adoption, if they meet certain eligibility criteria. As outlined in our Manifesto, the Government is committed to making it easier for fathers and partners to take Paternity Leave. The Government consulted on parental leave and pay reform, including Paternity Leave and Pay in 2019. We are considering responses to the consultation and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the (a) mean and (b) median number of weeks of maternity leave taken by new mothers is; and what proportion of new mothers take (i) 1-25 weeks, (ii) 26 weeks, (iii) 27-38 weeks, (iv) 39 weeks, (v) 40-51 weeks, (vi) 52 weeks and (vii) 53 weeks or more of maternity leave.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade does not routinely collect data on the length of maternity leave taken by mothers. However, in order to gather information among parents on how parental entitlements, including Maternity Leave, are used in practice, the Government commissioned the Parental Rights Survey as part of the Shared Parental Leave (SPL) evaluation.
We intend to publish the SPL evaluation and underpinning research, which includes information on the duration of Statutory Maternity Leave, in due course. Findings from the previous Maternity and Paternity Rights Survey are available here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maternity-and-paternity-rights-and-women-returners-survey-200910-rr777
Asked by: Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks made by Lord Benyon on 28 February (HL Deb col 205) in which he stated “Defra’s default approach will be to retain EU law unless there is a good reason either to repeal or to reform it”, whether they will apply the same approach to employment rights, including transfers of undertakings, equal pay, paid holidays, unsafe working hours, maternity and parental leave, redundancy consultation, agency and part-time workers’ rights, and other protections.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We are proud of the UK’s record on labour standards, having raised domestic standards over recent years to make them some of the highest in the world.
In leaving the EU we regained the ability to regulate autonomously, and the government is therefore conducting a comprehensive review of all retained EU employment law to ensure that our regulations are tailored to the needs of the UK economy and help create the conditions for economic growth.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2022 to Question 84999 on Parental Leave: Fathers, when she plans to publish her Department's response to the 2019 consultation on reforming parental leave and pay.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In 2019, the Government consulted on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay. The Government is currently considering responses to the consultation and will respond in due course. We are committed to making it easier for fathers to take Paternity Leave.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government is taking steps to ensure that the legal framework adequately allows grandparents to maintain relationships with their grandchildren following parental separation.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government understands the difficulties that some grandparents face in continuing relationships with their grandchildren following disputes arising from parental separation and that grandparents often play an important role in children’s lives and can provide stability in families.
Grandparents who are excluded from the lives of their grandchildren and are unable to agree an informal, family-based arrangement with their grandchildren’s parents can attempt mediation before applying for a court order. The existing legal framework allows all grandparents to seek leave of the court to make an application for a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order. The court will determine based on the individual facts of the case, whether they can spend time with their grandchildren and if so, what sort of contact would be in the child’s interest. The child’s welfare will be the court’s paramount consideration in these cases.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the BEIS consultation entitled Making Flexible Working the Default published in September 2021, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of mandating publishing of parental leave policies as part of gender pay gap reporting.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government consulted on whether employers should be required to publish and report on their family-related leave and pay policies in 2019. Having reviewed consultation responses from a range of stakeholders and taken account of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government decided that such a requirement should be considered as part of the process of considering how successful the Gender Pay Gap Reporting Regulations have been, and how Gender Pay Gap Reporting may be taken forward.
A fully considered review of Gender Pay Gap Reporting will be published in due course.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who will qualify for neonatal (a) leave and (b) pay.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
An Impact Assessment (IA) was published alongside the Neonatal Care Leave and Pay Bill and is available at the following link: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3190/publications.
The IA estimates that 27,600 mothers and 32,200 fathers/partner will be eligible for leave per year. Of which, 26,600 mothers and 30,000 fathers/partners, respectively, will be eligible for pay.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether he has plans to (a) replace, (b) revoke and (c) retain the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In leaving the EU we regained the ability to regulate autonomously, and the Government is therefore conducting a comprehensive review of all retained EU employment law to ensure that our regulations are tailored to the needs of the UK economy and help create the conditions for economic growth.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps is she taking to ensure that (a) kinship carers and (b) adoption parents receive on-going support until the young person in their care reaches 25 years of age.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The national adoption strategy sets out the department’s ambition to improve adoption support services across the country. Under the strategy, regional adoption agency leaders are collaborating to develop a core offer of support so that families will be able to access the same high-quality support wherever they live.
The Adoption Support Fund is available for adoptive and eligible Special Guardianship Order children and young people up to and including the age of 21, or 25 with an education, health and care plan. This funding ensures that children and their families can access vital therapies to address past trauma and attachment issues so that adoptive families can stabilise and thrive.
The review of Children’s Social Care sets out recommendations on how the government can better support kinship families. The department is now considering how we can take these recommendations forward, including the recommendations to create a financial allowance and a new paid parental leave entitlement for kinship carers.