Maternity and paternity leave in the UK

Release date:
27 October 2017

You asked

For as up to date statistics as possible:

  1. How many parents went on maternity or paternity leave in the UK & Ireland?

  2. What was the average length of this maternity or paternity leave?

  3. For those who went on leave how many parents changed their hours or the way in which they worked (ie part time, using flexi time or job share) within 12 months and 24 months of returning?

  4. How many parents left their job after coming back from maternity leave and in what time slots ie <3months <6 months etc? Male and female split.

  5. How many opted for flexile working? What was the duration?

  6. Any general costs associated a a result of loss of talent within this demographic, this includes the time it takes for a new employee to get to optimum efficiency level which Oxford Economics anticipates to be 28 weeks worth of wages.

We said

Thank you for your request.

While the Labour Force Survey collects information on people who are currently on maternity or paternity leave when interviewed, we do not collect information on their historical maternity/paternity leave or future plans. We are therefore unable to estimate the total number of parents who went on maternity/paternity leave in the UK and Ireland during a time period, as requested in your point 1. We do not collect the information you requested in your points 2 to 6

Should you want different information you can request this from the customer services team of ONS Social Surveys Division. This team provides an ad hoc analysis service, including tabulations of Labour force (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) data. This service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate. Details of the variables included in these datasets can be viewed in the LFS User Guides https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyuserguidance

If you would like to enquire about our service then please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk

If you are able to do your own cross-tabulations you could purchase an anonymised LFS or APS dataset from the UK Data Service. Details on costs and how to download the data can be found on their website:

Advice for commercial users - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/registration.aspx#/tab-commercial-users

Charges - http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/charges.aspx

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