Government publishes its response to the consultation on shared parental leave and pay

Further detail of the shared parental leave and pay system has been announced, with the publication of the Government's response to the consultation on its administration. The system is aimed at providing flexibility for parents over how they share caring responsibilities during the first year of their child's life, or the first year after adoption, with a move away from the assumption that it will be the mother who takes leave from work to look after the child.

Under the new system, mothers will retain the right to 52 weeks' maternity leave. However, if a woman has a working partner who meets the relevant qualifying conditions, she can choose to end her maternity leave early and she and her partner can take shared parental leave and pay. Parents can choose to take leave at the same time, or for one parent to take leave when the other returns to work. Shared parental leave can be taken in discontinuous blocks.

Provision for the shared parental leave system was included in the Children and Families Bill, with the details to be set out in secondary legislation.

The Government's response has clarified some of the detail of how shared parental leave and pay will work:

• Where, before the birth, an employee gives notice that she will end her maternity leave and opt in to shared parental leave, she will be able to change her mind and remain on maternity leave by revoking the notice up to six weeks after the birth.
• Employees must provide a non-binding indication of their expected leave pattern, as part of the mandatory information for notifying their employer of their eligibility and intention to take shared parental leave.
• In addition to notification of their intention to take shared parental leave, employees must give a minimum of eight weeks' notice of each leave period.
• An employee can give no more than three notifications of leave, including changes to previous notifications. However, notifications that are mutually agreed between the employer and employee will not count towards the cap.
• The same mandatory information about the applicant and his or her partner that is currently required for additional paternity leave will be required for shared parental leave.
• The cut-off point for shared parental leave to be taken will be set at 52 weeks after birth or adoption.
• Each parent on shared parental leave will be able to use up to 20 keeping-in-touch days (although they will be renamed to distinguish them from keeping-in-touch days available to mothers on maternity leave).
• Employees will have the right to return to the same job from any period of leave that includes maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave, if the total leave is 26 weeks in aggregate. If the employee returns after a longer period, the right will be to return to the same job or, if that is not possible, a similar job.

Along with the details on shared parental leave, the Government has announced that it will align the notification periods for paternity leave and pay. Currently, employees are required to give less notice for paternity pay than for paternity leave.  Under the aligned periods, notice must be given by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth (or within seven days of being matched with a child for adoption) or as soon as reasonably practicable.

The Government has said that it intends the new system of shared parental leave and pay to come into effect for babies due on or after 5 April 2015, and is preparing draft legislation to that end.

The response and the original consultation documents are available on the UK Government website.