on an application form can they ask about parental leave

[whichwitchisthis]

sorry typing with one hand

i got an application for for a job through the post the other day, on it it asks how many children i have, their dates of birth and how much parental leave i have taken in the last three years!!

can they ask this

Your entitlement to parental leave is limited to a total of 13 weeks per child, and it doesn't make a difference whether you change jobs, so a new employer would need to know how much you've taken at some point. I suppose you could refuse to put that information on an application form if you want to, but you would have to provide it further down the line if you get the job.

Is it on a detachable bit of the form, like the ethnic origin questionnaire section?

thanks, no it's slap bang on the front of the form

It's actually a strange form really anyway, as they have asked for employment history but not what your duties were

No supporting info or anything required...very odd

I've defo not had 39 weeks off!

I just thought that asking for your kids ages and that straight off is kind of like they are trying to sort out the people with kids iykim

I'm not going to refuse to put it on lol, cos I don't think I've taken more than a couple of days if that, but I bet you anything I won't get an interview once they see I've got three kids under 10!

That is a bit weird I agree. It's not good practice to ask for that information on an application form as clearly it won't or shouldn't have any bearing whatsoever on whether the person gets shortlisted. It's information they would only need if someone actually starts employment, so should be collected along with other information needed at that point, bank details, tax information and things like that.