The financial provider describes the move as one of the most family-friendly policies offered by any employer in the UK. The company employs 16,000 people in the UK.

The company says that the new policy will give parents employed by Aviva in the UK 26 weeks leave at full basic pay on the arrival of a new child. Parents who have adopted or used a surrogate mother will be covered in the same way as birth parents.

Aviva says this is “an important step forward in parental leave rights in the UK and the country’s workplace inclusion and diversity agenda, tackling one of the barriers to career progression.”

Aviva’s new deal will nearly double the EU minimum requirement of 14 weeks by giving 26 weeks leave at full basic pay for each parent within 12 months of a child's birth.

In the UK most women who have babies get 52 weeks' guaranteed maternity leave but see a big drop in earnings with statutory maternity pay covering just the first 39 weeks. This gives the mother pay at 90% of her normal weekly earnings for only the first six weeks with the remaining 33 weeks at £140.98 a week or 90% of their weekly wage, whichever is the lower sum. In practice most women see a substantial drop in earnings after six weeks. Employees may be entitled to Shared Parental Leave (SPL) within the first year of a child's birth or adoption.

It’s believed that Aviva's new policy was introduced by Sarah Morris, its chief people officer and a member of the company's executive committee.

The TUC says that the UK's benefits for new mothers are among the poorest in Europe.