Petition · past parliament

Stop shared parental leave and extend paternity leave to match maternity leave

Rejected 19 signatures

What the petition asks

Stop the current shared parental leave as it has been proven to not work as intended.
Extend paternity leave to match maternity leave, better yet combine them into 1 leave.
This will mean women get less discrimination as both sexes are entitled to the same leave for babies.
It also allows dads to be with premature babies as well as mums.
It also means families can bond together and dads get as much time with baby as mums if they want it.

Currently dads just have to separate from mum and baby and go back to work, this causes a lot of mental health issues for some dads as they are constantly pushed aside in modern life towards baby.
Maternity action has lots more information on this and data to show how many are actively unhappy with the current laws.

Why it was rejected

It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.

Timeline

31 Dec 2018 Petition opened for signatures
15 Jan 2019 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 19
Status Rejected
Rejected 15 Jan 2019

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.