Government Accused of Missing an Opportunity to Support Working Parents

The Women and Equalities Committee has published details of the Government’s response to its report on Fathers and the workplace, which had called for new measures on paternity leave and pay, shared paternal leave, the right to flexible working, workplace rights and driving cultural change. 

In its response the Government has apparently said that it accepts the need for change but rejects many of the recommendations made in the report without putting forward alternative solutions, and is therefore failing to address the gender pay gap, says the Committee.

“The Government has previously voiced good intentions when it comes to family friendly policies but the response to our report is a missed opportunity,” explained Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, Maria Miller MP. “Dads are calling for change and the Gender Pay Gap will not be tackled until dads get the support they need to support their children too.”

Equality campaign organisation, the Fawcett Society, issued a statement on the Government’s response.

"This is a huge missed opportunity to help families and to address one of the biggest inequalities in our society,” said Chief Executive, Sam Smethers. “We need nothing short of a revolution in our approach to leave for dads and yet what we have is a Government in denial. This is not the 1950s. The world has radically changed and Government policy must urgently catch up.”

"Shared Parental Leave doesn't deliver what we need because it doesn't start from a presumption of equal responsibility to care,” she added. “Until we create a longer, better paid period of use it or lose it leave for fathers which they can afford to take we won't make any meaningful progress on closing the pay gap and pregnancy discrimination will continue to be an everyday occurrence."

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Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.