14 March 2014

The government has decided to consult the draft, Shared Parental Leave Regulations. This draft will allow parents to share the leave after the birth of a baby in whichever proportions they see fit.

Subject to this new draft, it means that a parent is entitled to a statutory shared parental pay for any child whose expected week of birth begins on or after 4 April 2015, or, any parent who is notified as having been matched or placed for adoption on or after that same date.

In this draft it states that the parents of the child are both entitled to a statutory shared parental pay if they satisfy the conditions are included in the bill. These include parents accepting the responsibility for the child's wellbeing as well as complying with many more regulations listed in the draft.

In July we wrote an article on how a shared parental leave would be unlikely to improve gender equality. The IER will be examining the new draft regulations and commenting on them shortly. For more information watch this space.