The amount of time off and pay new parents can get after the birth of a child will be looked at in a “landmark” review, the government says.
Ministers said they wanted to modernise the system across paternity, maternity and shared parental leave in Britain, which campaigners said had been “overlooked for years”.
Campaign group The Dad Shift called the review the “best chance in a generation to improve the system and make sure it actually works for working families”.
A committee of MPs recently called the UK’s parental leave system “one of the worst in the developed world” with “fundamental flaws”.
Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said jobs would be lost if more costs were “piled on to employers”.
June’s report by the Women and Equalities Committee said “bold” action was needed to address those flaws, but warned that any changes would require significant investment.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told BBC Breakfast the current system is “really confusing”, with eight different types of parental leave available, and “is not particularly generous or supportive compared to other countries”.
Reynolds said one in three fathers takes no paternity leave and “hardly anyone” takes shared parental leave.
He said the review – which is expected to take 18 months – is needed because the parental leave system has not been reformed in decad
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