I thank the noble Baroness for her advocacy for the importance of paternity leave and parental rights. We have already delivered real change through the Employment Rights Act. On 6 April, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights. Alongside these changes, we are undertaking this comprehensive review of the system to consider whether further reforms are required. We have engaged with a broad range of stakeholders, alongside evaluating other sources of evidence. We have received almost 1,500 responses to the call for evidence, and it is important that we consider these carefully before deciding what further reforms are required.

The paternity review will look at whether we should extend the current entitlement for qualifying employees under the new rights that have come in, which for qualifying employees is two weeks’ leave paid at the statutory rate. The parental leave and pay review is considering whether this entitlement is sufficient.

The Government are undertaking a review of parental leave and pay, which presents a much-needed opportunity to consider our approach to the system and whether the support available meets the needs of modern working families, including the self-employed. The review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings in which the Government will outline next steps for taking any potential reforms forward to implementation.

The ‘Childhood in the Age of AI’ summit will be attended by a diverse group of representatives from civil society, industry, government and representatives of young people. It will address the impacts of AI on children and young people across a wide range of domains, such as education, wellbeing, development and safety. The discussions will not be restricted to any age group.

This work forms part of the government’s work to hear directly from parents and young people across the UK through our National Conversation children’s and young people’s wellbeing online.

Parents cannot receive more than one statutory payment at the same time, meaning Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (SNCP) is often taken at the end of Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay. As mothers can receive up to 39 weeks of maternity pay, and SNCP was introduced from April last year, many eligible mothers will have been in receipt of maternity pay at the point the data was extracted and may not yet have claimed SNCP.

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2025. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Cases have been rounded to nearest 100.

3) Figures may not sum to totals due to rounding.

HMRC does not receive data on exact claim duration. However, it is possible to estimate the duration of a claim based on total amounts of Statutory Neonatal Care Pay claimed. The average length of a claim is currently estimated at 2.3 weeks. The distribution of this is shown in the table below:

Notes:

1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2025. RTI is subject to revision or updates.

2) Cases have been rounded to nearest 100.

HMRC does not hold information on (1) the number of parents that have taken Neonatal Care Leave and (3) the number of parents that have received both Neonatal Care Leave and Pay.

HMRC does hold data on Statutory Neonatal Care Pay provided by Real Time Information, HMRC’s database that holds Pay as You Earn information relating to employees. Using data from April-December 2025, an estimated 1,900 individuals were in receipt of Statutory Neonatal Care Pay. This data was extracted from HMRC’s Real-Time Information in January 2026 and is subject to revision or updates.

The noble Baroness is absolutely right about the importance of the involvement of anyone who is in a parental position. Involvement starts before birth, in helping to prepare both parents for the huge changes that are about to happen. This is one of the factors that we will look into, to make sure that we create more opportunities where we can. I am not sure why men choose not to take up their parental leave offer, but I am happy to talk to the noble Baroness afterwards if I have misunderstood the tenor of her question.

The early years screen time advisory group is comprised of the following members:

• Professor Russell Viner (co-chair) – Professor in Adolescent Health, University College London, and former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Education.
• Dame Rachel de Souza (co-chair) – Children’s Commissioner for England.
• Professor Catherine Davies – Professor of Language Development, University of Leeds.
• Professor Pasco Fearon – Professor of Family Research, University of Cambridge.
• Professor Rosie Flewitt – Emeritus Professor of Early Childhood Communication, Manchester Metropolitan University.
• Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy – Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England.
• Professor Sonia Livingstone – Professor of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science.
• Professor Amy Orben – Programme Leader of the Digital Mental Health Research Programme, University of Cambridge.
• Professor Paul Ramchandani – LEGO Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning, University of Cambridge.
• Professor Kathy Sylva – Honorary Research Fellow and Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Oxford.

All members of the group attended the first meeting of the early years screen time advisory group on 22 January, alongside officials from the Department for Education, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England.

This introductory meeting focused on agreeing ways of working, including delivery timelines and approaches to evidence gathering, and the scope of the early years screen time guidance. The group also discussed the dissemination of the guidance.

Minutes of the meeting will be published in due course.

The early years screen time advisory group is comprised of the following members:

• Professor Russell Viner (co-chair) – Professor in Adolescent Health, University College London, and former Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Education.
• Dame Rachel de Souza (co-chair) – Children’s Commissioner for England.
• Professor Catherine Davies – Professor of Language Development, University of Leeds.
• Professor Pasco Fearon – Professor of Family Research, University of Cambridge.
• Professor Rosie Flewitt – Emeritus Professor of Early Childhood Communication, Manchester Metropolitan University.
• Dr Jeanelle de Gruchy – Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England.
• Professor Sonia Livingstone – Professor of Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science.
• Professor Amy Orben – Programme Leader of the Digital Mental Health Research Programme, University of Cambridge.
• Professor Paul Ramchandani – LEGO Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning, University of Cambridge.
• Professor Kathy Sylva – Honorary Research Fellow and Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Oxford.

All members of the group attended the first meeting of the early years screen time advisory group on 22 January, alongside officials from the Department for Education, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England.

This introductory meeting focused on agreeing ways of working, including delivery timelines and approaches to evidence gathering, and the scope of the early years screen time guidance. The group also discussed the dissemination of the guidance.

Minutes of the meeting will be published in due course.

My Lords, we are doing a number of different things. We are engaging in detail with stakeholders. We have already held 12 round tables, and we have engaged with business groups, academics and parent groups, including the CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses, the TUC, The Dad Shift, Mumsnet, and Maternity Action—lots of them. We are working through this with many academics, gathering all the evidence, finding out what we can do and looking at international comparisons. We are simply not doing nothing for the moment. We have already made a significant number of differences. The Government have introduced a range of things, such as neonatal care leave and pay, and we are looking at paternity leave and unpaid parental leave as day one rights, and at new leave for bereaved parents. There are a number of steps happening now, and we will look at whether there are things that can be introduced, and when, but we do have to get this right.

Despite discouragement from behind me, I am going to be gentle about this. The noble Baroness makes the important point that there is a lot out there to be learned. We are looking at the international evidence. In Great Britain we tend to be more generous with leave than, for example, other OECD nations, but we do not match up on pay. As part of the review, we have been looking at international comparisons to see what happens, recognising that there are of course differences in labour markets and tax regimes. We must be aware of the impact on our particular context. Certainly, I am hearing a lot of clear voices calling for fathers to have more paternity leave. One of the things we need to be aware of is that when shared parental leave was previously introduced, take-up was very low indeed. We need to make sure the system works well, rather than just diving into making changes.

The whole purpose of investing in this area is to increase access for families generally. It is crucial that the information that the noble Baroness raises is disseminated to as wide a number of people as possible. Evidence suggests that it is not just about the young people and children themselves; it is about the use of devices by the adults in their lives too. There is a huge amount to do, and a lot of emerging evidence, but increasing access and coming up with programmes of work has to be the way forward.

My Lords, the Government recognise concerns about the impacts of screen time on young children. We have produced guidance for the Help for Early Years Providers platform, which refers to the World Health Organization’s screen time recommendations. On screen time specifically, we are continuing to assess evidence gaps through ongoing research and will consider what, if any, further research and action is needed.

I thank the noble Baroness for our useful and informative meeting, from which we have already taken further action. She is right about, and we particularly discussed in that meeting, the concerns of parents for the advice that they receive. I outlined in my initial Answer some of the action that we are taking to provide more clarity for early years providers, but we are also working to provide parents with clear, specific advice on early years screen time and home learning. In advance of specific early years screen time guidance for parents, we have streamlined content on the Best Start in Life website, an issue that she raised with us, to ensure that relevant home learning content appears in search results for screen time. We are exploring options to prioritise search results, ensuring that the most relevant home learning page appears first to further strengthen discoverability. Any new specific guidance for parents on early years and screen time will also be signposted clearly on the website. I look forward to the opportunity, when the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill returns to this House for Report in January, to continue this conversation and provide further information about action that the Government are taking.

As I mentioned before, we think it is incredibly important to support parents to navigate the online world and support their children’s access. I mentioned the pilot awareness campaign, which is more targeted at eight to 14 year-olds, but I believe the resources that will be available with the Department for Education are more extended. We also support Ofcom’s updated media literacy duties under the Online Safety Act. As part of that, Ofcom is delivering a three-year media literacy strategy that prioritises support for children and families.

Information regarding the assumptions of take-up of the expanded working parent entitlements and funding made available at Spring Budget 2023 can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66221ba8252f0d71cf757d2b/Spring_budget_2023_childcare_expansion_costing_note_information.pdf.

In subsequent fiscal events, this government has provided funding uplifts for the overall early years entitlements budget which includes both the new working parents entitlements and the established entitlements. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £1.8 billion of funding for the early years entitlements in 2025/26, compared to 2024/25. The spending review 2025 announced an additional £1.6 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26, for the early years entitlements. The early years entitlements budget is demand-led, with final totals confirmed the term after the end of the financial year through the dedicated schools grant allocations.

Estimates of take-up of the expanded working parent entitlements have been updated each year using the annual official statistics release on funded early education and childcare, which reported a take up rate of 84% of the estimated number of eligible two-year-olds, 70% of the estimated number of eligible one-year-olds and 42% of the estimated number of eligible under-one-year-olds. The latest statistics can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025#releaseHeadlines-tables.

Information regarding the assumptions of take-up of the expanded working parent entitlements and funding made available at Spring Budget 2023 can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66221ba8252f0d71cf757d2b/Spring_budget_2023_childcare_expansion_costing_note_information.pdf.

In subsequent fiscal events, this government has provided funding uplifts for the overall early years entitlements budget which includes both the new working parents entitlements and the established entitlements. The Autumn Budget 2024 announced an additional £1.8 billion of funding for the early years entitlements in 2025/26, compared to 2024/25. The spending review 2025 announced an additional £1.6 billion per year by 2028/29, compared to 2025/26, for the early years entitlements. The early years entitlements budget is demand-led, with final totals confirmed the term after the end of the financial year through the dedicated schools grant allocations.

Estimates of take-up of the expanded working parent entitlements have been updated each year using the annual official statistics release on funded early education and childcare, which reported a take up rate of 84% of the estimated number of eligible two-year-olds, 70% of the estimated number of eligible one-year-olds and 42% of the estimated number of eligible under-one-year-olds. The latest statistics can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025#releaseHeadlines-tables.

We received over 1300 responses to the call for evidence. This information is currently being analysed, and the findings will go on to inform the review. Next steps will include engaging with a range of stakeholders, including advocacy groups, trade unions and business representatives, as well as evaluating other sources of evidence.

The review launched on 1 July and will last for 18 months. The Government will conclude the review with a set of findings and a roadmap, including next steps for taking any potential reforms forward to implementation.

We received over 1300 responses to the call for evidence. This information is currently being analysed, and the findings will go on to inform the review. Next steps will include engaging with a range of stakeholders, including advocacy groups, trade unions and business representatives, as well as evaluating other sources of evidence.

The review launched on 1 July and will last for 18 months. The Government will conclude the review with a set of findings and a roadmap, including next steps for taking any potential reforms forward to implementation.