Fathers to be given new paternity rights

Fathers will gain the right to take six months’ paternity leave under new plans announced by the Government.

The proposals will see parents afforded the right to share a year of parental leave to care for their newborn child, with fathers allowed to take six months off after the mother’s first six months of leave.

The changes will take effect for parents of children due on or after 3 April 2011.

Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, said the new rights would give ‘families radically more choice and flexibility’ and enable ‘fathers to play a bigger part in bringing up their children.’

But the Government has yet to fix a date for its plans to extend mothers’ maternity leave from nine months to a year.

Commenting on the shared leave proposals, Miles Templeman, Director General of the Institute of Directors, said: ‘We strongly support new paternity leave rights for fathers, providing the Government ensures that the new system is simple for businesses to administer and there is no overall increase in the total amount of paid and unpaid leave parents can take.’

However David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, told the BBC: ‘This is not the time to do it. It is a huge burden to plan for both a male and a female employee being away.’

The Government anticipates that the new rules will have a ‘minimal’ impact on companies and that just one in 137 small businesses are likely to be affected.