Paternity leave extension deferred

July 2007

The UK Government had planned to give fathers the right to claim up to 6 months paternity leave from April 2010. Because of the economic slowdown, they have decided not to bring the changes in that soon. As a result fathers are still only entitled to two weeks leave which is usually taken immediately after the baby is born.

The legislation is already in place to give the extra leave but it will not be implemented until the economy can cope.

Mothers and adopters were also going to have the right to additional statutory pay (up from 9 to 12 months) but it looks as though this is also on hold.

The legislation in more detail:

The Work and Families Act 2006 already allows regulations to be made that would permit working fathers to take up to 26 weeks of paternity leave, some of which can be paid, if the mother returns to work before the end of the one-year maternity leave period to which she is entitled.

The new provision would be available during the second six months of the child’s life, so in effect, fathers would be able to ‘share’ some of the maternity leave which is currently only preserved for the mother. The entitlement would also extend to couples who are adopting and to partners and civil partners of mothers.

A Government spokesman has now said that the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is continuing to review the appropriateness of all new regulations due to come into force in the current economic climate and as a result, a date has not yet been announced for extending paternity rights.

At the same time, the Government had proposed to extend statutory maternity pay and statutory adoption pay from nine to 12 months (to coincide with the period of maternity and adoption leave) and it looks as if this is also on hold.