To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff in his Department have used their leave entitlement under the Parental Leave Directive since it came into force. [108408]
Parental leave is available to all Home Office staff as one of a number of policies designed to help staff balance their work and home life. These include paid and unpaid maternity and adoption leave, paid paternity leave, career breaks, paid and unpaid special leave and a range of flexible working patterns. It is an unpaid entitlement and can be taken to look after a child or make arrangements for the child's welfare.Data on staff who take parental leave is recorded as unpaid leave on the Home Office personnel system. It is not possible to differentiate between parental leave and unpaid leave taken for other reasons. For this reason the number of staff who have applied for parental leave to date cannot be included except at disproportionate cost.The requirement to monitor different types of leave has been identified as part of the current design phase of the new Home Office personnel system.