Amendments to statutory paternity leave regime laid before Parliament

The draft Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 were laid before Parliament last month. These regulations will make changes to the way in which individuals exercise their statutory entitlement to paternity leave.

The regulations are due to come into force on 8 March 2024.

The amendments in the regulations will take effect in relation to children whose expected week of childbirth begins after 6 April 2024 and children whose expected date of placement for adoption, or expected date of entry into Great Britain for adoption, is on or after 6 April 2024.

Key Changes:

1. Eligible employees will now be permitted to take their leave and pay as two non-consecutive blocks of one week (previously leave had to be taken as two consecutive weeks or only one week).
2. Eligible employees will be permitted to take their leave and pay at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child (as opposed to within 8 weeks of birth or placement).
3. In most cases the notice period an employee is required to give will be 28 days prior to each period of leave (compared to 15 weeks before the expected week or childbirth). However, for domestic adoption cases, the notice period for leave will still remain within seven days of the adopter having received notice of having been matched with a child.
4. Fathers, partners and co-adopters will also be permitted to give 28 days’ notice of any variation of dates to enable them to change planned dates at a later stage.

Comments

These changes intend to make the process much more flexible for fathers and partners requesting such leave. As there a number of key changes in notification periods and the sporadic nature of leave employees will be permitted to take, employers are advised to ensure that any internal procedures and ways of working are amended to reflect the incoming changes.