Business Services
Law Guide
- Discipline and dismissal
- Employee rights
- Working time regulations
- Flexible working
- Discrimination and equal pay (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Discrimination and equal pay (Northern Ireland)
- Overview
- Age discrimination
- Bullying in the workplace
- Sexual orientation discrimination
- Religious belief or political opinion discrimination
- Disability discrimination
- Race discrimination
- Sex discrimination
- Marital status
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Gender reassignment
- Equal opportunity
- Equal pay
- Enforcement of rights
- Sexual harassment (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Adoption leave and pay
- Maternity leave and pay
- Shared parental leave and pay
- Paternity leave and pay
- Neonatal care leave and pay
- Parental bereavement leave and pay
- Parental leave and rights
- Carer's leave (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Pay and the minimum wage
- Emergency dependant leave
- Study or training (England, Wales and Scotland)
- Part-time working
- Whistleblowing by staff
- Working for a new owner
- Pensions
- Employing staff
- Flexible working
- Grievances
- Other compliance issues
- Sickness absence
- The Employment Rights Act 2025 (England, Wales and Scotland)
Parental leave changes
Contents
Qualifying criteria changes
Parental leave is available to employees who are parents (following the birth or adoption of a child) and who have, or expect to have, legal responsibility for them.
Currently, an employee must be continuously employed for at least one year before qualifying to take leave.
However, from 6 April 2026, parental leave is set to become available to employees (with the requisite parental responsibility) from the day they start work (i.e. it'll become a day-one right).
Since 18 February 2026, employees can give the required notices and evidence for taking parental leave in advance, to ensure they can start taking their entitlement to leave on 6 April.
There is still no requirement for parental leave to be paid.