LONDON—Fathers in the United Kingdom could take up to six months' paternity leave under the U.K. government's new Work and Families Bill, while from April 2007 mothers will be able to take up to nine months' maternity leave with statutory pay.

Statutory pay is a minimum salary required by U.K. law.

Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson announced a series of measures aimed at giving greater flexibility to working parents.

Under the bill, statutory maternity leave will be extended to nine months from six months beginning in April 2007 "with the ambition of moving to a year by the end" of the current session of Parliament, the Department of Trade and Industry announced Wednesday.

And fathers will be able to take an additional paternity leave on statutory pay if the mother returns to work after six months' maternity leave but before the end of her statutory maternity leave.

In addition, the DTI said it would, from April 2007, introduce a right for caregivers to request flexible working hours. Currently, parents of children younger than 6 or disabled children younger than 18 have the right to request flexible working hours, and employers have a duty to consider such requests.

The London-based Confederation of British Industry, which represents employers in the United Kingdom, said in a statement that while businesses are generally supportive of more flexible working for parents, the new bill could increase the administrative burden on U.K. companies.

"Businesses were willing to support the government's plans to extend maternity and flexible working rights provided that the inevitable administrative burden was shared," John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, said in the statement.

"But today's announcement introduces an unexpected new right for fathers and leaves employers guessing as to whether they will be able to hand back to the government the burden of administering maternity pay," he added.

The CBI said it would continue to lobby the government for the administration of statutory maternity pay to be handled by the government rather than by employers if companies—particularly small employers—wished to hand over this task.

The Institute of Directors, a London-based employers association, said it cautiously welcomed the bill but said it believed the cost of administration of the proposals should be handled by the government's tax collection department.

"Allowing new parents to trade off their maternity and paternity leave will hopefully benefit employers," Miles Templeman, director general of the IOD, said in a statement.

"If the mother is the more highly skilled and productive parent and returns to work sooner than expected, while her partner cares for the children, many businesses will suffer less disruption than under the present arrangements," he said.