The Government has published draft legislation in the form of the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024,which are due to come into force on 8th March 2024. The Regulations will apply where the Expected Week of Childbirth (EWC) is on or after 6thApril 2024.
From that date:
- Employees will only need to give 28 days’ notice of their intention to take paternity leave (reduced from the previous requirement to give notice 15 weeks before the EWC).
- Employees will be able to take their two-week paternity leave entitlement as two separate one-week blocks (rather than having to take just one period of paternity leave of either one week or two consecutive weeks).
- Employees will be able to take paternity leave at any time in the 52 weeks after birth (rather than having to take leave in the 56 days following birth).
These changes should give more flexibility in terms of how the right to take paternity leave is exercised.
This is a draft legislation at the moment and therefore, as always, we will keep you updated if anything changes.
Reminder
Details of other changes to family friendly provisions on the horizon, including the new carer’s leave; changes to flexible working provisions; and the extension to the period of special protection from redundancy for employees who are on maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave; can be found in our article here.
