Parental Leave (Hansard, 25 April 2001)

§ Mr. Byers

The Government are committed to helping parents to achieve a better balance between their home and work lives, in ways which enhance competitiveness for business. That is why we published the Green Paper "Work and Parents: Competitiveness and Choice", and have carried out extensive consultation with employers and their representatives, employees and their representatives, and family groups.

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As part of these consultations we have, among other points, received representations on the existing right to parental leave. In the light of these responses I am today announcing three important decisions.

First, we will increase from 13 to 18 weeks the amount of parental leave available to parents of disabled children. An increase on these lines was almost universally positively received by both parents and employers.

Secondly, parental leave will remain unpaid. Parents gave more priority to other options in the Green Paper, and while paid parental leave was supported by some employee representatives and family groups, employers of all sizes maintained a high level of opposition to its introduction on grounds of cost and the impact of absence levels from the workplace. The cost of paying for parental leave would be excessive for both the state and employers.

Thirdly, we will extend entitlement to parental leave to parents of all children who were under five as at 15 December 1999, when the right was first introduced. Experience since then suggests that parental leave has created fewer practical problems for business than may first have been anticipated, and the time is now right to increase the number of parents who are able to exercise the right. Transitional arrangements will apply for parents of children who have since reached, or will soon reach, the age of five, to ensure that they are not disadvantaged.

A note on the regulatory costs of these measures has been put in the Library of the House. We will publish the necessary draft statutory instrument before the summer.

We will announce the further decisions taken as a result of the Green Paper as they are reached.