Ministers have proposed that maternity leave be reduced to 18 weeks and that instead the remaining leave should become ‘flexible parental leave’, available to both parents.
Currently, mothers are entitled to 39 weeks of paid maternity leave and 13 weeks of unpaid maternity leave. Fathers are entitled to two weeks of paid paternity leave.
The proposal put forward in the Government's Modern Workplaces consultation, published last year, would give mothers 18 weeks of maternity leave, and four weeks of reserved paid parental leave, followed by 17 weeks of paid parental leave and 13 weeks of unpaid parental leave, which could be shared between mothers and fathers.
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