Supporting Fatherhood: Amendments to the UK's Paternity Leave Regulations

The UK Government recently published their draft Statutory Instrument to the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations and changes are expected to come into effect on the 8th March 2024.

The draft outlines amendments to the:

• Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002
• Paternity and Adoption (Adoption from Overseas) Regulations 2003, and;
• Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave (Parental Order Cases) Regulations 2014
  

The latest changes have created new processes for using paternity leave entitlements and created more flexibility for new fathers on how they use their entitlement.

The CIPD recently published their summary of key changes as follows:

"Amendments will take effect in relation to children whose expected week of childbirth is 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 that date.

Provision is made for situations where an employee has served a notice or provided information or a declaration under the provisions in force prior to the coming into force of these regulations. The employee will be deemed to have complied with any requirement in the amendments in these regulations to provide that information, declaration or notice.

An employee will be allowed to choose to take either two non-consecutive weeks’ paternity leave (birth), or a single period of either one week or two weeks. The period in which paternity leave (birth) must be taken is extended from 56 days after the birth of the child, to 52 weeks after the birth. Similar amendments are made in respect of paternity leave (adoption).

Details are given of the notices and evidence of entitlement an employee must give to an employer in order to take paternity leave (birth). This includes provision for an employee to vary any leave dates notified previously. Similar provision is made in relation to paternity leave (adoption)."