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<p>Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Pay was introduced in December 2014 for the parents
of children due or adopted from 5 April 2015. The scheme enables eligible working
parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay in the first year,
where the mother does not intend to use her full maternity entitlements.</p><p>Information
provided by employers to HMRC in respect of claims for Statutory Shared Parental Pay
(ShPP) by Quarter<sup>3</sup> indicates that 4,500 individuals were in receipt of
ShPP in Quarter 1 of 2021-22, and 5,300 individuals were in receipt of ShPP in Quarter
2 of 2021-22. Data for Quarter 3 of 2021-22 is not yet available.</p><p>HMRC does
not hold information which calculates the total duration of ShPP received by individual
claimants. However, the Table 1 sets out the number of individuals in receipt of ShPP
in 2020-21 by the number of months<sup>4</sup> in the year that they made a claim:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Number
of months claimed<sup>4</sup> in 2020-21</p></td><td><p>Number of individuals in receipt
of ShPP</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>1</p></td><td><p>3,400</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>2,700</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>3</p></td><td><p>2,100</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>4</p></td><td><p>1,400</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>5</p></td><td><p>700</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>6</p></td><td><p>500</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>7</p></td><td><p>300</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>8</p></td><td><p>100</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>9</p></td><td><p>100</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Please
note:</p><ol><li>The data collected uses HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) system and
was extracted in November 2021 covering up to September 2021. RTI is subject to revision
or updates, and so there may be small fluctuations in figures reported, and these
figures should not be considered “final”.</li><li>Figures have been rounded to the
nearest hundred.</li><li>The number of individuals in receipt of ShPP per quarter
are based on the total number of individuals in that quarter irrespective of when
the payment first started. For example, some individuals in the Quarter 2 figures
also appeared in Quarter 1 figures. Quarterly figures should not be added together
to make a yearly count of individuals in receipt of ShPP due to double counting claimants
from quarter to quarter.</li><li>“Number of months claimed” counts each month the
same individual was in receipt of ShPP, in a given tax year (2020-21). This should
not be interpreted as the total duration of pay received. Where individuals are in
receipt of pay which spans two financial years HMRC data shows only the period within
each year. Where individuals have received pay spanning multiple months, however briefly,
they will be recorded as receiving ShPP in each month.</li><li>This data represents
individuals in receipt of Shared Parental Pay only, so those who take unpaid Shared
Parental Leave are not included.</li></ol><p> </p><p>The Government conducted a £1.5
million communications campaign in 2018 to promote the Shared Parental Leave Scheme.
In addition to this campaign, we have also undertaken cost-free communications activities
to promote the scheme such as blogs by parents who have taken the leave and articles
regarding the introduction of the online tool which enables parents to map out leave
with their partner</p><p>The number of hours officials spend on individual projects
is not held centrally.</p><p>In order for fathers/partners to take Shared Parental
Leave, the child’s mother must curtail their entitlement to 52 weeks of Maternity
Leave and 39 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Maternity Allowance to potentially
share any remaining weeks of leave and pay with the child’s father/their partner or
take SPL themselves (they may wish to do this as SPL is more flexible than Maternity
Leave).</p><p>Information provided by employers to HMRC in respect of claims for Statutory
Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) show the number of individuals (including mothers and fathers/partners)
in receipt of ShPP. This data provides a broad indication of the level of SPL take-up
for parental leave entitlements but does not include anyone taking unpaid Shared Parental
Leave. Table 2 sets out the number of individuals in receipt of ShPP in each year
since 2015-16.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year (Apr to Mar unless otherwise stated)</p></td><td><p>No.
of individuals<sup>6</sup> in receipt of Statutory Shared Parental Pay</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015-16</p></td><td><p>6,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016-17</p></td><td><p>8,600</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017-18</p></td><td><p>9,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018-19</p></td><td><p>10,700</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019-20</p></td><td><p>12,600</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020-21</p></td><td><p>11,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021-22
(Apr 21 to Sep 21)</p></td><td><p>7,600</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Notes</p><ol><li>The
data collected uses HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) system and was extracted in November
2021 covering up to September 2021. RTI is subject to revision or updates, and so
there may be small fluctuations in figures reported, and these figures should not
be considered “final”. This may especially be the case for 2021/22 data.</li><li>Figures
have been rounded to the nearest hundred.</li><li>These figures are based on the total
number of individuals in receipt of ShPP in a given year, irrespective of when the
payment first started. Therefore, some individuals will be counted in 2 years (for
example, those who take SPL in March and continue in April etc will be counted in
both years).</li><li>For the 2015-16 tax year, those receiving Additional Statutory
Paternity Pay (ASPP) for children born before 6 April 2015 cannot be distinguished
from those claiming Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) within RTI data.</li><li>Data
for individuals in receipt of Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) includes both mothers
and fathers in receipt of ShPP, however fathers, on average, make up over three-quarters
of all ShPP recipients.</li><li>Data for individuals in receipt of Statutory Shared
Parental Pay (ShPP) includes both mothers and fathers in receipt of ShPP, however
fathers, on average, make up over three-quarters of all ShPP recipients.</li><li>This
data represents individuals in receipt of statutory parental pay only, so those who
take unpaid parental leave are not included.</li></ol>
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