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Departmental Paternity Leave

Volume 497: debated on Tuesday 13 October 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff took paternity leave from his Department in each of the last five years; and what the average duration of such leave has been. (290573)

Employees are contractually entitled to 10 days paid paternity or maternity support leave if they have completed one year’s qualifying service ending with the 15th week before the baby is due.

The actual number of employees who have taken paternity leave in the Home Office has not been collated centrally and we are therefore unable to provide paternity leave data for each of the last five years without incurring disproportionate costs.