Effective from 6th April 2024, The Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 brings in four changes giving employees more choice in respect of their leave.
Where a child’s expected week of birth or adoptive placement begins on or after 6 April 2024:
- Employees taking two weeks leave can now choose to take two non-consecutive one-week blocks, or as two consecutive weeks
- Employees can now choose to take their paternity leave any time in the 52 weeks following the birth or adoption of their child.
- Employees need to give 28 days’ notice before the expected week of childbirth or adoption of how much leave they want and when they want their leave to start. This replaces the previous15-week notice period.
- Requested leave dates can be changed where the employer is given at least 28 days’ notice.
Where the child’s expected week of childbirth is before 6 April 2024, the employee will fall under the old statutory paternity rules and can only take their leave as a single week or two consecutive weeks within the first 56 days of the birth of the child.
Subscribers to our services can access our revised guidance on paternity leave online.
The Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 can be read on the Governments website.