The committee's report, published in July, made several recommendations on steps the Government should take to support new parents, including extending parental leave and pay for families by three months during the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuring that the childcare sector has sufficient funding to provide the care needed for parents to return to work, both in the short- and long-term. The report was the result of an intensive inquiry, following an e-petition receiving over 226,000 signatures.
However, in a response published today, the Government stated that it is ‘still not persuaded that there is a need to extend entitlements to paid Maternity Leave at this time’ and hopes that ‘employers will encourage their staff to make full use of the suite of entitlements to time off work that is available to them’.
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