Parental leave meaning

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...

Removing a child from the jurisdiction Taking a child out of the jurisdiction without the necessary consent(s) can constitute an offence under the Child Abduction Act 1984 (CAA 1984). Refer to the Practice Note titled: Child abduction—criminal action and electronic tagging. Where there is no existing child arrangements order (CAO) in force regulating the child’s living arrangements, the requisite consent must be obtained in advance of removing the child from the jurisdiction from the following: each person with parental responsibility the father (whether or not he has parental responsibility for the child) Failure to do so creates a risk of breaching CAA 1984 and/or the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. If a CAO is in place regulating the child’s living arrangements, section 13 of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989) provides that a child may not be removed from the UK without either the written consent of every person with parental responsibility or the court’s leave....

Original news Makhlouf v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Northern Ireland) [2016] UKSC 59, [2016] All ER (D) 93 (Nov) The Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a deportation order made against a foreign offender, notwithstanding that his children are British citizens living in the UK. While the appellant argued that removal would violate his and his children’s rights under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the court decided that, on the evidence, he had no relationship with either child and their lives had been completely unaffected by his being their father. The court also determined that the Secretary of State was not required to undertake further enquiries concerning the appellant and his children beyond those already conducted. What was the background to the case? The appellant, a Tunisian national, married a British citizen in Tunisia in 1996. In 1997, his wife returned to Northern Ireland for the birth of their daughter, and he subsequently joined her. He was granted indefinite leave...

Hilton Foods Solutions v Wright [2024] EAT 28 What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment turns on a single issue of interpretation: what must an employee do to be treated as having “sought” parental leave so as to gain protection from dismissal under the MAPLE Regulations 1999, SI 1999/3312, reg 20, as enforced by section 99 of the Employment Rights Act 1996? HHJ Tayler found that whether an individual has “sought” parental leave is a matter for the employment tribunal to decide on the facts, applying the ordinary meaning of the word “sought”, without any special gloss. Serving notice to take parental leave in accordance with paragraphs 1(b) and 3 of Schedule 2 to the MAPLE Regulations will, save in exceptional circumstances, generally show that the employee has “sought” to take parental leave; however, it is not the sole means by which it can be shown that the employee has sought to take parental leave. Accordingly, practitioners should note: employees...

In this issue: Pay Pensions Maternity, parents and carers Data protection and employee information Individual rights arising from union membership Employment Tribunals Europe—EU New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q&As Employment resources on Lexis+® Daily and weekly news alerts Pay Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2025 SI 2025/Draft Under the draft Order, the following changes are set out: Statutory Sick Pay increases from £116.75 to £118.75 per week, effective 6 April 2025. Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, Statutory Shared Parental Pay and Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay rise from £184.03 to £187.18 per week from 6 April 2025. Maternity Allowance moves from £184.03 to £187.18 per week with effect from 7 April 2025. See: LNB News 17/01/2025 4. Pensions DWP concludes annual statutory review of AE thresholds for 2025 to 2026 financial year...

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),...

This Practice Note considers statutory adoption pay (SAP) and contractual adoption payments. It also examines eligibility criteria, the meaning of employed earner, the duration of entitlement, notice obligations, the evidence required, the length of time SAP is payable, rates of pay, and liability, including where an individual has more than one employer. It addresses outcomes where a child dies or a placement breaks down, circumstances in which SAP is not due, record-keeping duties, and how recoupment operates. Finally, it explores how contractual sick pay interacts with SAP, adoptions from outside the UK, and contracting out. A parent taking adoption leave (see Practice Note: Adoption leave) may qualify for SAP for part of that leave. They may receive payment for time off to attend adoption appointments (see Practice Note: Time off work for adoption appointments). Where a child is placed for adoption, the adopter and a second person—who must be the adopter’s spouse, civil partner, or partner—may, if they choose, share up to 37 of the 39 weeks of pay...

For comprehensive coverage of the substantive right to take shared parental leave, refer to Practice Notes: Shared parental leave (birth) and Shared parental leave (adoption). This Practice Note outlines the circumstances in which employees may carry out work while on shared parental leave. For details on the ability to work during maternity and adoption leave, see Practice Note: Work during maternity or adoption leave—keeping in touch days. Shared parental leave keeping in touch days (SPLIT days) Employees can undertake up to 20 days of work ('shared parental leave in touch days' or 'SPLIT days') during any periods of shared parental leave that they take, without such work ending their shared parental leave, or any entitlement to shared parental pay...

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...

[ include relevant information on the electorate as specified by the employer, eg the whole workforce, night shift, day shift, management, non-management, or applicable department ] Absent voter details: (To be completed by the absentee) Proxy details: (To be completed by the proxy) I will be absent and cannot vote in person in the election for [ employee OR worker ] representatives due to holiday, illness, maternity leave, parental leave, other (delete as applicable)...

Employee name: Employment commencement date and present length of service [ Insert date ] [ Insert length of service ] Job role: Division/Department Assessed by: Assessment date: Role: Approved by: Date: Role: Guidance: When using the criteria (other than disciplinary history), reasonable adjustments might be required for workers with a disability (as set out in the Equality Act 2010, s 6) where not doing so would put them at a significant disadvantage compared with non-disabled colleagues. This exception does not extend to disciplinary records. Service refers to continuous employment with the company and any linked company. Service includes transferred service within associated companies. If the worker has under 12 months’ service, convert the absence record to an annualised figure. Annualisation ensures a balanced and like-for-like assessment. Disregard the following absences: These must be excluded from absence calculations. absences linked to a disability (as defined by Equality Act 2010, s 6); maternity...

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...

This Q&A relates to the shared parental leave and shared parental pay regime introduced in respect of children who are: due to be born on or after 5 April 2015, or placed for adoption on or after 5 April 2015 Shared parental leave permits parents, if they prefer, to split up to a maximum of 50 weeks of the leave that would otherwise fall solely to the mother or adopter, which is then treated as shared parental leave. Shared parental pay enables the mother and the father (or, where relevant, the adopter and the adopter’s partner) to divide up to 37 weeks of the pay to which the mother (or adopter) would otherwise be solely entitled. To qualify for shared parental leave and pay, the mother and the father (or, as applicable, the adopter and the adopter’s partner) must satisfy certain eligibility criteria and comply fully with the required notice, declarations and supporting evidence provisions...

Parental leave Parental leave (meaning unpaid parental leave, and not to be confused with Shared Parental Leave) is regulated by the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999 (MAPLE Regs 1999), SI 1999/3312. The default position under the MAPLE Regs 1999, SI 1999/3312, Sch 2, requires employees to: give notice of their intention to take parental leave, specifying the dates the leave will begin and end; and give at least 21 days’ notice of the date on which the parental leave is to start. MAPLE Regs 1999, SI 1999/3312, Sch 2, also sets out that the minimum period of leave that can be taken at any one time is a week, and that leave must be taken in weekly blocks, not individual days (assuming the child in question is not disabled)...