Powered by Lexis+®
Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
CASE STUDY

“It's hard to quantify, right now. But at a guess, I'd say it's probably more than 50% faster, at times. It's literally that quick. We've found to be an essential practical tool. We're very satisfied.”

Walsall Council

Access all documents on Family leave

Family leave meaning

What does Family leave mean?
Family leave describes statutory time off work connected with childbirth, adoption or caring responsibilities, and associated employment protections. It is an umbrella term; the underlying entitlements are defined in legislation in each jurisdiction. In England & Wales and Scotland, and broadly similarly in Northern Ireland, family leave commonly includes statutory maternity leave, statutory adoption leave, statutory paternity leave, shared parental leave, unpaid parental leave and parental bereavement leave. In Ireland, comparable entitlements include maternity leave, adoptive leave, paternity leave, parental leave and parents’ leave, with differing labels and qualifying rules. Key features across the UK and Ireland include continuity of employment, protection from dismissal or detriment, and the right to return to work. Contractual enhancement is common in some sectors. Pensions treatment is typically addressed in scheme rules. During paid statutory family leave, occupational schemes usually treat service as continuous: member contributions are commonly based on actual pay received, while employer contributions are often assessed on notional pre‑leave pay. During unpaid periods, members may need to make up contributions to maintain pensionable service. Precise outcomes depend on scheme design (DB/DC), auto‑enrolment status and funding rules. Practitioners should check the specific statute and local regulations for England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Speed up all aspects of your legal work with tools that help you to work faster and smarter. Win cases, close deals and grow your business–all whilst saving time and reducing risk.

View the related Checklists about Family leave

CHECKLISTS
Workplace Pensions and Statutory Family Leave: Accrual, Contributions and Employer/Trustee Duties (Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Parental, Shared Parental, Bereavement, Carer’s) - Checklist

Legislation safeguards the pension entitlements of members of occupational pension schemes and other employment‑related benefit arrangements, including workplace personal pension schemes that receive employer contributions, while they are away from work on statutory family leave. Statutory family leave encompasses: maternity leave paternity leave adoption leave parental leave shared parental leave parental bereavement leave carer’s leave Maternity leave Occupational pension schemes are taken to include a maternity equality rule requiring periods when a member is on maternity leave to be treated in the same manner as periods when they are not on maternity leave. This maternity equality rule applies to both paid and unpaid ordinary maternity leave (OML), as well as to paid additional maternity leave (AML). As a result, under this rule, time spent on OML and paid AML in a defined benefit (DB) scheme is recognised as pensionable service...

Read More Right Arrow
CHECKLISTS
UK Immigration Rules Appendix FM: family routes financial requirement and adequate maintenance—quick-reference checklist and calculations (including 11 April 2024 MIR changes and cash savings)

This quick-reference checklist supports calculating whether an applicant meets the relevant thresholds for eligibility under family immigration routes. It specifically helps with reviewing both the main financial requirement and the adequate maintenance requirement for routes under Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules... Which financial requirement applies? New application from 11 April 2024: £29,000 Renewal or extension from 11 April 2024 (including fiancés converting to partner): £18,600 (plus applicant child increment, capped at £29,000) Pending application made before 11 April 2024: £18,600 (plus applicant child increment, no cap) Sponsoring applicant in receipt of a specified benefit or applying on a specified route (e.g. as a parent): Adequate maintenance based on current income support rates (see below) Where applicable, child increments are: +£3,800 for the first child and +£2,400 for each extra child; e.g. +1 child = £22,400, +2 children = £24,800, +3 children = £27,200, and +4 children = £29,600 (unless capped at £29,000). British children and those with leave under...

Read More Right Arrow
CHECKLISTS
Bankruptcy Income Payments Orders (s310) and Agreements (s310A): Practitioner Checklist, Procedure and Key Issues (England and Wales)

Income payments order The trustee in bankruptcy (trustee) may seek an income payments order (IPO) pursuant to section 310 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986) where, having assessed matters, they consider the bankrupt enjoys surplus income once the bankrupt’s reasonable domestic needs are allowed for. See Practice Note: Income payments orders (IPOs) under section 310 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The court is responsible for setting the venue for the hearing of the trustee’s application. The trustee must provide the bankrupt with not less than 28 days’ notice of any application, enclosing the application itself and a statement of the grounds on which the order is requested. Up to five business days before the hearing date, the bankrupt may consent to the order by notifying both the court and the trustee. Alternatively, by attending the hearing, the bankrupt may make any representations they wish as to why the order ought not to be made. Any order issued must not leave the bankrupt with less than is necessary to...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related News about Family leave

NEWS
UK employment law update: tribunal limits, SSP/SMP rises, neonatal leave, ERB progress, Skilled Worker immigration changes, DEI pay gap consultation, key cases and April 2025 changes (20 March 2025)

In this issue: Horizon scanning Worker status and categories Immigration Pay Remuneration Taxation Diversity and the gender pay gap Maternity, parents and carers Whistleblowing Data protection and staff information Confidentiality, obligations and restrictions: enforcement Financial services and banking: employment matters Bribery, modern slavery, tax evasion and fraud Issues arising on termination Employment Tribunals Civil courts and alternative dispute resolution Dates for your diary Trackers Employment resources on Lexis+® LexTalk® Employment: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Horizon scanning Updated Employment Rights Bill to be considered by the House of Lords The updated Employment Rights Bill (ERB), transmitted from the House of Commons to the House of Lords, was issued on 14 March 2025. Its second reading in the House of Lords is scheduled for 27 March 2025...

Read More Right Arrow
NEWS
UKSC reshapes MFPA 1984 Part III: no 'knock-out blow', lower threshold to set aside without notice leave, 'real prospect' permission test (England and Wales)

Potanina v Potanin [2024] UKSC 3, [2024] All ER (D) 126 (Jan) What are the practical implications of this case? Under Part III of the MFPA 1984, courts in England and Wales possess the power to order financial remedies after an overseas divorce. By virtue of section 13 of that Act, permission must first be secured before an application for financial relief may properly be issued. The appeal scrutinised how the statutory leave, or permission, filter in the legislation ought to be read alongside the existing case law, and it examined fundamental principles of procedural fairness. A majority of the Supreme Court determined that the entrenched practice for addressing applications for leave had contravened the essential requirement of procedural fairness. The focus was procedural fairness at leave stage. Does it follow, therefore, that the outcome will be a reduction in parties seeking to ‘forum shop’ in the often more favourable English family courts?...

Read More Right Arrow
NEWS
Ireland: Supreme Court upholds Personal Injuries Guidelines but finds Judicial Council Act 2019 s 7(2)(g) unconstitutional; FLAMPA 2021 preserves effect; judges may depart, giving reasons

Delaney v PIAB [2024] IESC 10 What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling is poised to be far-reaching, as numerous judicial review matters before the High Court involve plaintiffs advancing arguments akin to Ms Delaney’s on whether their valuations should follow the Guidelines or the Book of Quantum. Those claims stood in line behind Delaney, with the parties awaiting, with bated breath, the result and its influence on those actions. Section 18(5) of the Judicial Council Act 2019 (Ireland) (JCA 2019 (IRL)) required the Judicial Council to revisit the Guidelines within three years of their adoption. Because of this judgment, that review is now likely to be deferred so that further legislation can be brought forward to change and/or adjust the Guidelines. For personal injury litigation, the ruling has several concrete effects: the judiciary may depart from the Guidelines, but they must explain the reasons for any such departure in all cases where proceedings had not issued before and where...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related Practice Notes about Family leave

PRACTICE NOTES
Statutory annual leave carry-over in Great Britain: Working Time Regulations 1998, 2024 reforms, sickness, family leave and employer duties, with pre-2024 case law and termination pay

Statutory paid holiday In Great Britain, workers have a legal entitlement to 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998), SI 1998/1833. It should be recognised from the start that this is made up of two components: a core entitlement of four weeks’ paid annual leave (often called ‘Euro leave’) (WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833, reg 13), and an extra 1.6 weeks’ paid annual leave (WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833, reg 13A) Different rules apply to irregular hours and part-year workers for holiday years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. For further details, see Practice Note: Statutory paid holiday—irregular hours workers and part-year workers. For the position in Northern Ireland, which has its own Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, SI 2016/49, see Practice Note: Employment law in Northern Ireland—Working Time Regulations and holidays. The basic four-week entitlement reflects the UK’s implementation of the EU minimum in Article 7 of Directive 2003/88/EC (the Working Time Directive),...

Read More Right Arrow
PRACTICE NOTES
Comprehensive family law client guides: precedent letters and practitioner notes across divorce, children, finances and ADR (England and Wales)

Client guides Client guides comprise template letters covering a broad spectrum of family law matters, suitable for sending directly by the family practitioner to the client. Each guide also features drafting commentary for practitioners and hyperlinks to relevant connected materials, such as Practice Notes, forms, authorities, precedents and legislation. For procedural guides offering step-by-step direction on, inter alia, domestic abuse, asset preservation, relationship breakdown, cohabitants, private children, financial provision, international cases and enforcement, refer to Practice Note: Family procedural guides...

Read More Right Arrow
PRACTICE NOTES
Employment settlement agreements: drafting, tax and compliance—including PENP, DSARs, TUPE tripartite settlements, public sector controls, NDAs, post-termination restrictions and remedies

This Practice Note considers the practical matters that commonly arise in connection with an employment settlement agreement (previously referred to as a compromise agreement). It also highlights the likely tax considerations and signposts our related Practice Notes for fuller guidance. For details of the legal requirements (that is, the conditions governing settlement agreements) that must be satisfied for an agreement to be binding and effective to compromise statutory employment claims, see Practice Note: Settlement agreements in employment—legal requirements Parties to the agreement Where the employer is an individual, or a company with a straightforward corporate set-up, the parties to the settlement agreement will be the employer and the employee, with no necessity to mention third parties. However, the identity of the employing entity may not be simple, eg within a more complex group structure where: the employee works, or has worked, for other companies in the employer’s group, eg on secondment the employee performs their duties for one company but is paid by another...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related Precedents about Family leave

PRECEDENTS
Shared Parental Leave and Pay (Birth): Fathers and Partners Entitlement Notice and Declarations Template, including Mother’s Consent and Curtailment Details

Instructions: please read all of this before filling in the form Throughout this form, when we refer to: the ‘child’, we mean the child (including an unborn child) for whom you intend to take shared parental leave/pay; and the ‘Mother’, we mean that child’s mother or expectant mother. To take shared parental leave and/or claim shared parental pay, you must be: the child’s father; and/or married to the Mother; or the Mother’s civil partner; or the Mother’s ‘partner’. In this form, ‘partner’ means someone who lives with the Mother and will live with the child in an ‘enduring family relationship’, but is not the Mother’s child, parent (including adoptive or former adoptive parents), grandchild, grandparent, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew. Provided you fall into one or more of the categories above, every reference in this form to the ‘Father or Partner’ is a reference to you...

Read More Right Arrow
PRECEDENTS
UK Immigration Rules Part 8: evidence checklist for child indefinite leave to remain applications, including sponsor finances, accommodation, relationship and sole responsibility

A. Documents for main applicant Evidence of the sponsor parent(s)' income and funds: Examples of suitable evidence are set out below. While a six-month span is not mandated by the Immigration Rules, it is recommended as a reasonable timeframe for demonstrating income and savings. Payslips for the previous six months (for employed persons). And/or proof of business or self-employment income for at least the last six months, such as: (a) Letter from a registered accountant for the business confirming the sponsor parent(s)’ income during that period. (b) Invoices. (c) Business accounts. Personal bank or building society statements or passbooks covering the past six months. Any accountant providing a supporting letter must be registered with an appropriate professional regulatory body. Bank or building society statements should show what has been paid in and out of the accounts for the past six months...

Read More Right Arrow
PRECEDENTS
Form for adopters: notice to curtail statutory adoption leave and/or pay to enable shared parental leave/pay, plus partner consent declaration

Instructions: please read all of this before filling in the form This form should be completed by you if you are an adopter, or a prospective adopter, employed by the Company who intends to: take shared parental leave and/or apply for shared parental pay; and/or authorise the use of shared parental leave and/or the claiming of shared parental pay by a person (referred to below as the ‘Adopter’s Partner’) who is your spouse, your civil partner, or your ‘partner’. A ‘partner’ is someone who lives with you and will live with the child in an enduring family relationship, but is not your child, parent, adoptive parent, former adoptive parent, grandchild, grandparent, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew. If you are, or will be, entitled to statutory adoption leave in your employment with the Company, you must end that entitlement before you can take shared parental leave. In addition, you must either curtail your statutory adoption leave early, or set...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related Q&As about Family leave

Q&As
Deed poll at 16: can mother execute without father’s PR consent?

When a baby is born, the birth must be registered, and the surname entered at that time is intended to be the name by which the child is known. If a parent later wishes to change the child’s surname, they should first consult any other person who holds parental responsibility before any step is taken. This applies irrespective of the existence of a child arrangements order, and regardless of whether that person has contact with the child (Re PC (Change of Surname)). Where there is disagreement, the matter must be placed before the court for a determination. A contested change of surname must not be made unilaterally (Dawson v Wearmouth). Altering a name is a significant matter and should not be approached lightly. In deciding whether to grant leave, the court is guided by the welfare principle in section 1(1) of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989), and will act accordingly...

Read More Right Arrow
Q&As
One-Week Non-Paying Licensee: 4-Week Notice to Quit and PEA 1977

Service of a notice to quit/notice to end the licence was not required. The lodger/licensee occupied solely by way of goodwill. No periodic licence was ever created or granted...

Read More Right Arrow
Q&As
Gifts in Wills to Adopted-Out Grandchild by Biological Grandparent

See Practice Note: The meaning of ‘children’ in Private Client and Chapter 75 Adopted children: Williams on Wills. It is prudent to note carefully how using the term ‘children’ shapes, in practice, the practical effect of any gift left to children. At common law, a reference to children was presumed to mean legitimate offspring only; by definition this excluded illegitimate and adopted children as a matter of course...

Read More Right Arrow